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Hobohemia and the Crucifixion Machine Rival Images of a New World in 1930s Vancouver

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In the early years of the Great Depression, thousands of unemployed homeless transients settled into Vancouver’s “hobo jungle.” The jungle operated as a distinct community, in which goods were exchanged and shared directly, without benefit of currency. The organization of life was immediate and consensual, conducted in the absence of capital accumulation. But as the transients moved from the jungles to the city, they made innumerable demands on Vancouver’s Relief Department, consuming financial resources at a rate that threatened the city with bankruptcy. In response, the municipality instituted a card-control system—no longer offering relief recipients currency to do with as they chose. It also implemented new investigative and assessment procedures, including office spies, to weed out organizational inefficiencies. McCallum argues that, threatened by this “ungovernable society,” Vancouver’s Relief Department employed Fordist management methods that ultimately stripped the transients of their individuality.

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Series Title

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Call Number

332 pages

Publisher

Canada : AU Press., 2014

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781926836287.01

Classification

332 pages

Content Type

text

Media Type

computer

Carrier Type

online resource

Edition

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Subject(s)

Canadian History
Political Science, Political Theory
History, Labour, Political History

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Statement of Responsibility

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Other Information

Cataloger

Arin

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