Gang Leader for a Day

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Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes To the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh Gang leader for a day is the account of the young sociologist who carried out a study of a Chicago based gang that deals in selling and distributing crack. In this book, Sudhir Venkatesh narrates his experiences while collecting qualitative data for his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Chicago in the 90s. His book details the notes of economic transactions of the drug-dealing gang that Venkatesh studied. The data collected was from the high-rise part of the Robert Taylor Homes that is home to ten thousands of poor and unemployed African Americans. The housing projects were later demolished in 2007. His book answers the question,” how does it feel to be black and poor?” through observation as a method. Observation as a research method does not require one to just by just asking questions. It demands that an individual should directly submit himself to a daily routine similar to the as those he is carrying his study on. Through this, Venkatesh was able to understand the neighborhood and all kinds of people of lived resided there such as pimps, crack dealers, law enforcement, squatters, activists and organizers. Over the seven years he spent in the projects, he created a rapport with gang leaders such as JT and he established qualitative-quantitative divide. The study he carried out narrowed down to the qualitative aspects of certain issues such as ethics, race/class/gender and identity in the dynamics of data collection. The realism of the indigenous inhabitants of the projects and the assessment from qualitative versus quantitative methods of data collection are highlighted in this book. Venkatesh’s work in A Gang Leader for a Day exposes the challenging issues of carrying out ethical research. For instance, Venkatesh encounters many difficulties trying to maintain loyalty

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