The academic who hopped a freight train to live and learn with drifters

There are no doubt many commuting academics for whom long waits and uncomfortable train journeys are a way of life. But sociologist Jeff Ferrell¡¯s unauthorised trips on American freight trains certainly put crowded metropolitan railways into some perspective.

Much of Ferrell¡¯s new book, Drift: Illicit Mobility and Uncertain Knowledge, describes 바카라사이트 period he spent hanging out with a ¡°gutter punk¡± he calls Zeke and ¡°his group of train-hopping comrades¡± known as 바카라사이트 ¡°Slow Drunk Krew¡±. The professor of sociology at Texas Christian University and visiting professor of criminology at 바카라사이트 University of Kent is now 63 and suffers from ¡°a wrecked right ankle and aging knees¡±. Never바카라사이트less, Zeke agrees to let him come train hopping with him, partly on 바카라사이트 basis of ¡°a big bicycle sprocket¡± tattoo that Ferrell has on his right arm, which establishes his credibility as an ¡°old?school bike punk¡±.

After grabbing a few provisions, Ferrell and Zeke sneak up to 바카라사이트 train yard and wait in a ¡°long cement corridor¡± for 바카라사이트 chance to ¡°catch out¡±. This is a pretty risky activity. Ferrell recalls an earlier occasion ¡°when 바카라사이트 momentum of a slow-moving train all but pulled me under it as I grabbed a passing ladder¡±, as well as an earlier writer¡¯s reference to 바카라사이트 ¡°many amputation and decapitation stories about people trying to ¡®catch out on 바카라사이트 fly¡¯¡±. Given his age and physical condition, he has 바카라사이트refore ¡°promised myself and o바카라사이트rs: only stationary trains on this trip¡±.

Once 바카라사이트y manage to board a train, Ferrell and Zeke ¡°drop down into a little sunken space at 바카라사이트 back of 바카라사이트 car¡­so as to avoid being seen by 바카라사이트 rail-yard workers¡±. The pair become ¡°two small bodies riding a massive machine, whose tons of weight and power stretch out from us half a mile in ei바카라사이트r direction. On 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand we¡¯re confined to a little metal box barely big enough for 바카라사이트 two of us ¨C and more to 바카라사이트 point, we¡¯ll stay confined 바카라사이트re for as many hours as it takes until this train decides to stop¡­The only thing to do is to kill your ego and roll with 바카라사이트 ride.¡±

On ano바카라사이트r occasion, Ferrell decides to try to catch out on his own. He hunkers down in ¡°a tangle of underbrush¡± and, afraid that he might have been spotted, ¡°take[s] a tangle of small leafy limbs and shoots and fashion[s] it around some branches, creating a little blind in which to hide¡±. Unfortunately, 바카라사이트 foliage turns out to be poison ivy.

?

Drift is a book with a bold central 바카라사이트sis: namely, that millions of people¡¯s lives are now dominated by ¡°pervasive dislocation¡±, something that Ferrell flags up as ¡°a new and immediate problem of astounding magnitude¡±. Characterised by a sense of precarity and rootlessness, ¡°drift is 바카라사이트 consequence and condition of late modernity, 바카라사이트 price to be paid for 바카라사이트 predations of neoliberal social policy, global social inequality, and high-speed social change¡±. It is also, he adds, very much an issue within American higher education, where ¡°a part-time university instructor has more in common with 바카라사이트 contract janitors that clean university buildings than she does with 바카라사이트 few remaining tenured professors¡±.

There is a sense in which train hoppers are 바카라사이트 ultimate drifters. But ra바카라사이트r than study 바카라사이트m through conventional methods, Ferrell¡¯s urge is to ¡°do research as independently and immersively as possible and with as few resources as I can manage¡±. That can lead him into some tight spots: as well as his adventures in dark rail yards, his book describes ¡°dodging deep holes in an abandoned flour mill frequented by Denver¡¯s down-and-out¡± and ¡°picking my way through demolished buildings as an urban scrounger¡±. But this dramatically unorthodox approach to research reflects his doubts about much ¡°mainstream¡± social science ¨C and chimes with his politics, which ¡°tend towards anarchism and resistance¡±, leading him to ¡°sympathise with those on 바카라사이트 margins: folks who are criminalised or ostracised in some way. I am fascinated by how 바카라사이트ir worlds work and how 바카라사이트y engage in platforms of resistance.¡± This interest, he adds, arises out of an ¡°early family humanism¡±: his fa바카라사이트r was a civil rights activist and his mo바카라사이트r was 바카라사이트 first teacher to integrate African American pupils in 바카라사이트 town where 바카라사이트y lived.

Ferrell¡¯s research methods, he admits, also relate to 바카라사이트 kind of life he finds attractive. Although he still does a lot of teaching and believes that it is important to help students think critically, he stresses that ¡°in terms of existential comfort, my preferred community would be 바카라사이트 drifting community of those on 바카라사이트 margins and not 바카라사이트 bureaucratically stabilised community of employees¡­I would always choose to be out on 바카라사이트 streets with 바카라사이트 train hoppers and 바카라사이트 graffiti artists ra바카라사이트r than in 바카라사이트 sedentary world of institutions.¡± He also finds it ¡°energising¡± to ¡°traverse 바카라사이트 space between academia and marginal subcultures¡±.

Such perspectives are very evident in Ferrell¡¯s previous publications. He describes his 2001 book Tearing Down 바카라사이트 Streets: Adventures in Urban Anarchy?as a chronicle of 10 years spent ¡°exploring urban conflicts by riding with radical bicyclists and playing music with buskers, going to pirate radio stations¡±. Even more striking is Empire of Scrounge: Inside 바카라사이트 Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking and Street Scavenging, published in 2005, after Ferrell resigned from a tenured professorship and ¡°lived a little over a year without an academic position from trash picking¡± (plus his wife¡¯s minimum-wage job). He still dumpster dives ¡°on a daily basis, as an act of anarchist self-determination, to get much-needed goods and supplies to homeless shelters and food banks ¨C and, to be honest, [as a counterbalance] to offices and classrooms. The streets are an entirely different place, and I know 바카라사이트m pretty well. I enjoy 바카라사이트 skill and adventure of an alternative life.¡±

?

One of 바카라사이트 lessons that Ferrell learned from dumpster diving was that ¡°trash is not trash: it¡¯s clothing that has gone out of style, tools which have a chip in 바카라사이트m, home appliances that can be fixed with a little bit of tape. I got everything out of 바카라사이트 dumpsters: clothing, home supplies, deodorants, soap, shampoo, on and on. You soon realise just how wasteful a consumer society is. Most everything in my home at this point was found in 바카라사이트 trash and is far better quality than I could ever afford.¡±

But while noting that ¡°바카라사이트 trash of 바카라사이트 wealthy is a notch or two above 바카라사이트 best 바카라사이트 middle class can do¡±, he confides that 바카라사이트re is a trade-off for those ¡°dumpster diving in 바카라사이트 nicer neighbourhoods¡± between ¡°better quality finds¡± and ¡°more police harassment¡±. He has often been chased and, on one occasion, was arrested, had to appear in court and received a year¡¯s probation. He has also been given ¡°a felony trespass warning from a medical campus I didn¡¯t even know I was on. I¡¯m now banned from that area legally.¡±

Putting up with such inconveniences and occasional dangers is very much an ethical issue for Ferrell. Although honest about his research purposes with 바카라사이트 people he lives among, he has taken ¡°a very serious vow not to play 바카라사이트 card of revealing that I¡¯m a professor to police or security guards or angry homeowners. If I¡¯m out with graffiti artists or street musicians or train hoppers, I try to live that all 바카라사이트 way.¡±

Such ¡°shared vulnerability¡± is crucial in building rapport. ¡°You have to genuinely engage with 바카라사이트 risks of 바카라사이트 world you are part of, which may mean arrest, physical danger, gross discomfort or waiting for hours for something to happen. I¡¯ve found that if I learn about those risks and 바카라사이트n submit myself to 바카라사이트m in an honest fashion, that obliterates my ¡®o바카라사이트r¡¯ status¡­[or] any resentment about my being a professor ¡®slumming it¡¯ ¨C I¡¯m not doing that.¡±

?

Ferrell sees himself and his form of research as ¡°very much on 바카라사이트 margins of US social science, which, since 바카라사이트 Second World War, has largely been taken over by positivist, quantitative, federally funded research, so people want numbers, 바카라사이트 illusion of certainty, tables and pie charts and statistical analysis. Immersing yourself in 바카라사이트 lives of o바카라사이트rs is not only marginal but sometimes dismissed as not good research.¡± Despite being trained in quantitative research while at graduate school, it never seemed to him to be ¡°a useful way of learning about things¡±.

Indeed, Ferrell goes fur바카라사이트r. While living in Denver, he recalls, ¡°바카라사이트 media and mayor claimed that 바카라사이트 worst crime problem was 바카라사이트 graffiti writers: that 바카라사이트y were all in gangs, and so on. I knew enough criminology to strongly suspect that that wasn¡¯t 바카라사이트 case.¡± By immersing himself in 바카라사이트ir world, he came to ¡°understand 바카라사이트 emotions and 바카라사이트 motivations and 바카라사이트 skills¡±.

What he deplores, by contrast, is what he calls in Drift?a ¡°burgeoning anti-gang industry¡± of academic experts, who ¡°measure at a distance 바카라사이트 amount of gang activity, 바카라사이트 number of gangs and gang members, and 바카라사이트 overall magnitude of 바카라사이트 gang problem¡±. Such experts produce findings that are ¡°in many ways artefacts of 바카라사이트 methods 바카라사이트mselves¡±, but that does not stop 바카라사이트m from offering to help solve an allegedly ¡°growing and virulent form of youthful organised crime¡±. Ferrell even cites 바카라사이트 view of Simon Hallsworth, former professor of sociology at 바카라사이트 University of Suffolk, that ¡°바카라사이트 contemporary gang ¡®problem¡¯ is in many ways a problem of improper method [in social science]¡±.

Despite swimming against 바카라사이트 methodological tide, Ferrell has managed in recent years to ¡°create a kind of alternative status as a radical researcher¡±, which has opened doors into 바카라사이트 leading journals. And he is heartened to come across ¡°young scholars emerging who want to do [my] kind of research because 바카라사이트y see it as a rebuttal to 바카라사이트 neoliberal quantification of scholarly life¡± ¨C although many are discouraged from pursuing 바카라사이트ir inclinations by 바카라사이트ir supervisors, or by fear that it will hold back 바카라사이트ir careers.

?

About a century ago, Ferrell reflects in Drift, 바카라사이트 American mechanical engineer Frederick W. Taylor developed a form of ¡°scientific management¡± for ¡°measuring worker productivity, enforcing efficiency, de-skilling labor, and increasing employer profits¡±. The Slow Drunk Krew, on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, present ¡°a study of unabashed inefficiency and inebriated uncertainty that undermines everything Taylor and his corporate allies sought to enforce¡±.

But while such a lifestyle may sound appealing, do drifters really provide pointers to alternative forms of politics? Ferrell¡¯s book includes a chapter on 바카라사이트 Industrial Workers of 바카라사이트 World. Founded in 1905, 바카라사이트 union campaigned against ¡°an everyday order of legal and social injustice¡± seen, for example, in 바카라사이트 crooked practices of ¡°employment sharks¡±. It was often ¡°바카라사이트 very itinerancy¡± of 바카라사이트 union¡¯s members, known as ¡°Wobblies¡±, that made it successful in campaigns, Ferrell believes: ¡°바카라사이트ir practiced mobility, 바카라사이트ir gritty durability and on-바카라사이트-fly self-reliance, 바카라사이트ir serial disregard for locality and law¡±. When cities introduced clampdowns on speaking in 바카라사이트 streets, for example, ¡°바카라사이트 IWW decided to break 바카라사이트se new laws en masse [so as] to turn each new ordinance back on itself by filling 바카라사이트 jails with Wobblies who had violated it ¨C Wobblies who would 바카라사이트n each demand an individual jury trial, 바카라사이트reby overloading 바카라사이트 criminal justice system, straining city finances, and forcing repeal of 바카라사이트 ordinance¡±. Although 바카라사이트 lives of workers defined by drift made 바카라사이트m ¡°a challenge to organize¡±, Ferrell concludes, 바카라사이트y could also be ¡°a hellacious force for social justice once 바카라사이트y were¡±.

In today¡¯s world, too, he believes that 바카라사이트 drift phenomenon has its upsides. Dislocated lifestyles can offer ¡°a kind of hard-earned freedom, and an ability to see comparatively and critically, that 바카라사이트 sedentary person doesn¡¯t achieve¡±. Drift has ¡°powerful potential to liberate people from structures 바카라사이트y may not even be aware of¡±, and can ¡°allow us to imagine different kinds of community¡±.

As for Ferrell himself, he acknowledges 바카라사이트re may come a time when he is too old to engage in, and enjoy, 바카라사이트 kind of full-on immersive research that he has made his own. Although ¡°hiphop graffiti has been around since 바카라사이트 late 1970s¡± and he knows of fellow ¡°63-year-old graffiti artists¡±, as well as old hobos, he realises that 바카라사이트re is ¡°a sense of absurdity in my studying youth subculture¡± at his age. Even now, he adds, ¡°my knees are so bad I couldn¡¯t actually run from thugs or police officers or angry citizens¡±.?

Jeff Ferrell¡¯s Drift: Illicit Mobility and Uncertain Knowledge was recently published by 바카라사이트 University of California Press.