Yes,“vocabularies of motives”and action should be analytically separate, butWacquant’s scathing dismissal of Duneier’s“Kodak moments,”reacts much too far in theopposite direction.

drawn to the potential for making positive images of these destitute men

Without this recognition (tacit or spoken) from other residents of the valueof their work, they would have found it much harder to shout back when peoplecomplained of the noise, or to generally assert themselves in neighborhood spaces asworkers rather than public nuisances

it seemed to me that this approval was an expression ofgratitude for what the“clean”recyclers represented on a symbolic level

addicted to illegal drugs or alcohol

own thing

masculinity

you’re working foryourself, so you don’thavetofeellikesomeone’s getting rich off you

panhandling

Sometimes,I see someone I know from before, before the street, you know. That can be awkward, butthen I say to myself, if you ain’t here, you ain’t got no idea.

pleasure in the wor

bricoleurs

While recycling could be made to fit certain masculinities, it seemed torepulse women with mainstream conceptions of femininity

“serious”or“pro”recyclers, rather than themore bricoleur-like“casuals.”

recycling centers were each buying

Thehomeless men unload their towers of bottles and cardboard while young Latino vanrecyclers shout jokes across them. Middle-aged Vietnamese women in jeans and paddedjackets buzz around on forklifts or push around great tubs full of bottles and cans, stoppingoccasionally to help elderly people with their laundry carts. The van recyclers repeatedlyhonk their horns at the homeless people to get out of the way. The shopping-cart recyclers,silently methodical in all their work, ignore them, asserting their own rights to the space.

the“pros’”pride in their recycling prowess

there is a large overlap between homeless wage earners and daylaborers—many, perhaps most, homeless wage earners seem to work by the day, and manyday laborers are homeless or marginally housed