Philippe Bourgois Summary

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Because of the fact that this study covers many aspects of life, it can be used in various settings. Bourgois takes the individual struggles out of its context and connects it to structural social issues as inequality, poverty, marginalization and educational problems. He stresses on the history and how the colonialism played a role in the oppression of the Puerto Rican population of East Harlem. (Bourgois, World101x: Full interview with Philippe Bourgois 2014) Due to the holistic approach, this study can also be valuable in other departments of social science as criminology, sociology, psychology and within political science. Each approach has its own strength. By connecting them, a new level of understanding is attained. This is what Bourgois accomplishes by looking at the life of inner-city poverty from different perspectives. “In search of Respect: selling crack in El Barrio” is part of the series on Structural analysis in the Social Sciences. The series “presents approaches that explain social behavior and institutions by reference to relations…show more content…
Bourgois often reflects in his writings. Well aware of the fact that he is an outsider from a dominant class. (Bourgois, In search of Respect 2003, 13) He integrates his personal feelings in the ethnography. There is no doubt that mixing in and learning how to behave on the streets was anything but easy. A lot of effort is needed to gain the trust of socially marginalized people. Bourgois handled this with care. The first impression drug dealers get from a white male in a drug neighborhood, is that of an undercover police officer. On the contrary, it was the police itself that made life harder for Bourgois. “Police officer: You’re babbling, you fuckin’ drug addict. You’re dirty white scum! Go buy your drugs in a white neighborhood.” (Bourgois, In search of Respect 2003, 31) Fortalezas -

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