Synopses & Reviews
Of the some sixty thousand vacant properties in Philadelphia, half of them are abandoned row houses. Taken as a whole, these derelict homes symbolize the cityand#8217;s plight in the wake of industrial decline. But a closer look reveals a remarkable new phenomenonand#8212;street-level entrepreneurs repurposing hundreds of these empty houses as facilities for recovering addicts and alcoholics. How It Works is a compelling study of this recovery house movement and its place in the new urban order wrought by welfare reform.
To find out what life is like in these recovery houses, Robert P. Fairbanks II goes inside one particular home in the Kensington neighborhood. Operating without a license and unregulated by any government office, the recovery house provides food, shelter, company, and a bracing self-help philosophy to addicts in an area saturated with drugs and devastated by poverty. From this starkly vivid close-up, Fairbanks widens his lens to reveal the intricate relationships the recovery houses have forged with public welfare, the formal drug treatment sector, criminal justice institutions, and the local government.
About the Author
Robert P. Fairbanks II is assistant professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introductionand#160;
1and#160;and#160; The Making of AHAD
2and#160;and#160; and#8220;How It Worksand#8221;:
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Basic Architecture of the Kensington Recovery House Systemand#160;and#160;
3.and#160;and#160; The Art of Building Programmatic Space
4.and#160;and#160; The Persistent Failures of the Recovery House System:
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Low-Wage Labor, Relapse, and and#8220;the Wreckage of the Pastand#8221;
5.and#160;and#160; Unruly Spaces of Managed Persistence
6.and#160;and#160; Statecraft/Self-Craft:
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Policy Transfer in the Recovery House Movement
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index