Comments | anthropologist: Gang leader for a day

ibid in anthropologist

Gang leader for a day

Feb 19, 2008 12:38

February 17, 2008
( Hanging out with the ghetto’s Gordon Gekkos
The sociologist Sudhir Venkatesh spent years living with a brutal Chicago gang. He tells the forces that shaped it are spreading to Britain )

usa, urban anthropology, drugs

Comments 10

chrryblssmninja February 19 2008, 17:47:23 UTC

interesting.

marykate_gift February 19 2008, 21:36:22 UTC

thanks for sharing that... it makes me want to read the novel. It certainly (as a white middle class teacher) makes me look closely at the perception I have of life in the ghetto. It's fascinating to look at it from the perception that gangs are re-creating "capitalism" and that what they really want is to move out of the ghettos into the suburbs and live a different life... I'd be curious to know how many of them do... thanks!

(The comment has been removed)

kenosis February 20 2008, 05:56:05 UTC

It sure is a good thing there's Marxist-Leninist groups like FARC out there that are dealing drugs for the people, eh?

Some may argue international terrorism is part of global class war.

Is that what you're arguing?

(The comment has been removed)

kenosis February 21 2008, 02:17:18 UTC

There's a lot of Marxist assumptions in your comments - class war, exploitation, the internationalist nature of social class.

Thread 8

Random Thoughts trilliumgrl February 23 2008, 05:30:11 UTC

I've seen several articles about this book. I keep having one thought, that not one article mentions, this is a sociologist becoming a anthropologist.

Several of the articles talk about living with gangs for research as a new thing. Guess they never heard of In Search of Respect.

Re: Random Thoughts ibid February 23 2008, 10:03:04 UTC

I thought that too. I'm surprised he didn't see this as ethnography

Re: Random Thoughts trilliumgrl February 23 2008, 13:04:15 UTC

Somehow, I get the feeling that he didn't really know (like much of america) (a) what an ethnography is and (b) yes, you can do one about americans. He might realize it is now, but your average reporter knows squat about cultural anthropology.

Silly sociologists :)

claw789 February 23 2008, 06:29:33 UTC

I read his book and found it quite fascinating.