Nestled between Santa Monica and Marina del Rey, Venice is a Los Angeles community filled with apparent contradictions. There, people of various races and classes live side by side, a population of astounding diversity bound together by geographic proximity. From street to street, and from block to block, million-dollar homes stand near housing projects and homeless encampments; and upscale boutiques are just a short walk from the infamous Venice Beach, where artists and carnival performers practice their crafts opposite cafes and ragtag tourist shops. In 'Venice: A Contested Bohemia in Los Angeles', Andrew Deener invites the reader on an ethnographic tour of this legendary California beach community and the people who live there. In writing this book, the ethnographer became an insider; Deener lived as a resident of Venice for close to six years. Here, he brings a scholarly eye to bear on the effects of gentrification, homelessness, segregation, and immigration on this community.
