Sudhir Venkatesh's new book

[rivkat]

Sudhir Venkatesh, Floating City: A Rogue Sociologist Lost and Found in New York's Underground Economy: Venkatesh made his name with Gang Leader for a Day, about Chicago; this book is about his attempts to make sense of New York City via its sex workers, both low-end and high-end, and how they mixed. It’s part confessional and part argument about the effects of globalization on rich people (they can always start over/flee consequences, even when they were running an escort service for a while) and poor people (forced to reinvent themselves without any safety net). It shouldn’t work and there’s a definite overdisclosure element as he discusses his own discomfort with the rich people who patronize him, but it’s the same hot mess as the city he describes, and equally compelling: we all float down here.

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