Gang Leader for a Day Essay

In so doing, Venkatesh revealed a complex swagger of subculture (the Black Kings were a highly nonionised rout with a clear hierarchy, recruitment rituals, and socialisation processes) and culture the gang were enter in the day-to-day life of the Projects. Although their aboriginal purpose was to achieve m stary d nonpareil selling drugs (mainly crack cocaine), they also performed a range of secondary functions within their territory from the provision of protection for Project residents from other(a) gangs, through the organisation of social activities (such as Basketball games), to policing the Projects (involving things like the provision of security for the homeless.).a. Ethnicity His South Asian social background allowed him to pass among the overwhelmingly black subjects of his study in a personal bitner that would have probably been denied to him if he had been albumin (since the solo white faces in the Projects were those of the constabulary and, with on e or two famed exceptions, they rarely ventured into the place except to make arrests and, it is implicitly suggested, extort protection money). Venkateshs initial encounter with the Black Kings was one where he was mis arrive atn for a subdivision of a rival (Mexican) gang his ethnicity was multifariously considered by the nation in the Projects to be Mexican, Spanish or the largely-ubiquitous labelAy-rab. The fact he was relatively young, casually garmented and a student at the University also gave him credentials accepted by some(prenominal) those in the gang and the Projects generally something that leads into a second considerationHis ethics, however, are questionable. He started doing investigate and had not gotten human subjects approval. He deceived his advisor and dissertation committee close the extent that he was embedded into the gang. He saw clearly illegal activities take place and never told anyone, and once or twice did something illegal. Their claims are n ot only that he was un honest, but that he countersink peoples lives at risk, that he lied to his main informant, JT, to get into the research site, and the only person who has benefited from the harbor of account is Venkatesh. To be fair, Venkatesh did teach a course when asked to, and on occasion he brought food or drink (often alcohol) to parties and such.The tenured radical folks mention approvinglyMitch Duneiers paving (another great book) to the highest degree homeless people and how he shares his royalties with those whom he interviewed The books main focus is on escape, as it examines the day-to-day struggles of the virtually all African-American residents in a poor lodging project. However, there is much in the book that could be mined for courses in deviance, scatethnicity, inequality, research methods, sociology of organizations, and to a lesser extent, gender. Issues of class, race and identity also surface, as Venkatesh (the babe of middle-class South Asian imm igrants) discusses his fibre as a brown man Southern Californian, and how his experiences shape his academic vantage point. Venkatesh sets up a clearly delineated debate on the qualitative-quantitative divide, coming take in squarely on the qualitative side, breeding early that the question How does it feel to be Black and poor? is not easy answered using a Likert scale.He dexterously highlights issues of ethics, identity, raceclassgender dynamics in data collection, the realities of ethnographic work, and the hold dear and use of qualitative versus quantitative methods of ingathering data. Gang Leader for a sidereal day throws into sharp relief the thorny issues of conducting ethical research. For instance, Venkatesh struggles with maintaining allegiances with coercive community members, while nerve-racking to forge close ties with less powerful residents.Venkatesh gives refreshingly honest, clear examples of his missteps. For instance, he focuses the intention of his r esearch on the underground preservation of three high-rise buildings within the gangs territory, and collects detailed information from residents about how much money they make, expenses they incur and so forth. Venkatesh talks with pimps and prostitutes, as well as those who sold food or offered child care in their apartments, styled hair, prepared taxes, offered psychic fortune telling, performed carpentry, fixed cars, collected silicon chip metal, as well as a host of other off-the-books businesses. Venkatesh provides a vivid, lame account of life in a notorious Chicago housing project. His book interweaves issues of social class, race, ethnicity, gender, crime, deviance, and the study of organizations. Moreover, his perspective on the discipline is a compelling one a self-described rogue sociologist,