Gang Leader for a Day is Sudhir Venkatesh’s account of the six years he spent doing research in Chicago’s housing projects as a Sociology graduate student. It was thought that the key to formulating good policy was to first formulate a good scientific study. Des milliers de livres avec la livraison chez vous en 1 jour ou en magasin avec -5% de réduction . Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatesh managed to gain entrance into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic establishment. Sudhir Venkatesh's Gang Leader For a Day portrays the bleak and brutal gang lifestyle in one of America's many urban wastelands, says Ed Vulliamy Buy … Take a look at the winners, presenters, and top moments from this year's Golden Globes. It made me feel more compassion towards those impacted by violence that happens in the city and more aware of the complexities of helping impoverished communities. (Customers buying crack from other dealers.) Gang Leader for a Day Book Description : A New York Times Bestseller Foreword by Stephen J. Dubner, coauthor of Freakonomics When first-year graduate student Sudhir Venkatesh walked into an abandoned building in one of Chicago’s most notorious housing projects, he hoped to find a few people willing to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty--and impress his professors with his boldness. As it happened, I attracted a good bit of curiosity from the locals. Jan. 18, 2008 12:01 am ET Chapter Four. it was hard for me to find time to read the whole book rather than a cliffs note version of it, but I did, and I'm glad I did. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published “I'm not sure I'm ready for another big research project just yet," I said. Refresh and try again. There is virtually no discussion of the importance of his preconceived attitudes and beliefs and tendency to adhere to negative racial stereotypes. This started out as a rip-roaring read for me. He liked the macho all-boys-together, he liked the idea of it being an alternative economy run by people who are not more or less corrupt and violent than the legitimate one. This study guide contains the following sections: Summary; Chapters; Important People; Objects/Places. Interesting book. Themes; Styles; Quotes. But this is about more than gangs. Unable to add item to List. . Gang Leader for a Day: Sudhir Venkatesh. I came across this book through a radio interview with its author. I was now beginning to see the limits of my narrow experience. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Publisher: SAGE Publications. Charlie was a retired factory worker, a beefy man with tattooed, well-developed arms, a college football star from long ago. But he was also about to launch a new research project, he said, and I could participate if I liked. This book was recommended by a friend who had just finished it as well as Freakonomics. He befriended the leader of the Black Kings, one of the country's largest and most violent crack-dealing gangs, and led the group for a day. How embarrassing! Anybody watching you? It is also the story of a complicated friendship between two young and ambitious men, a universe apart. . No one has time to read them all, but it’s important to go over them at least briefly. Aside from a few liquor stores and broken-down bodegas, there wasn’t much commerce. 4 stars, Power, Sister! Oh...um...hrm…Dude, I don’t know what to say. See all 4 questions about Gang Leader for a Day…, Petra-X has no life so is reading a book a day, Gang Leader for a Day / Sudhir Venkatesh. How relevant could it be now? Match. This second group, usually called ethnographers, use their firsthand approach to answer a particular sort of question: How do people survive in marginal communities? Charlie could see I was dejected. There are corrupt cops! "The achievement of Gang Leader for a Day is to give the dry statistics a raw, beating heart. My frustration with the more scientific branch of sociology hadn’t really coalesced yet. I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago, and for my research I had taken to hanging out with the Black Kings, the local crack-selling gang. This book was referred to in a Sociology class I took in relation to covert participant observation. The most talkative among them was Leonard Combs, a.k.a. Reading Group Guide. Gang Leader For a Day Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis. Écoutez « Gang Leader for a Day » de Sudhir Venkatesh disponible chez Rakuten Kobo. Sudhir Venkatesh had a problem when researching and writing this book. He's surprised that gangs use violence. Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatest managed to gain entree into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic establishment. Please try your request again later. A man named Charlie Butler jumped in. Dude, if you know you're bending the rules for your own benefit, maybe stop? I had moved to Chicago just a year earlier from California, where I’d attended a predominantly white college situated on the beach, UC San Diego. It exposed and detailed a world that I knew nothing about, and peaked my curiosity to look into the subject matter of gangs and life in the projects in greater detail. Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatesh managed to gain entrée into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic establishment. There was a problem loading your book clubs. As a recent Chicago resident, I found this book fascinating (and a pretty horrifying at times). It turned out that the ivory tower was also an ivory fortress. hearing being planned out, and c.) participating in. The only times I did not enjoy this book were when I couldn't deal with the difficult realities it laid out. It comes as no surprise that general expectations and values are seen as invalid. Even after spending years in the projects, he still doesn't know how things work. When you have finished reading the text, you will be required to write a two to three-page paper using the guidelines below. for instance, or What makes a government policy work well for some families and not for others? As part of my heavy course load at the U of C, I began attending seminars where professors parsed the classic sociological questions: How do an individual’s preferences develop? I sat and listened to them for hours. A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets 209 at risk. What little I knew about modern gangs, however, came from the movies and newspapers—and, of course, the constant cautions issued by the U of C about steering clear of certain neighborhoods. The Gang Leader for a Day Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and … I began to falter about halfway through when I felt like it was more anecdotal than anything, and I found myself craving more synthesis on his part. He turned on the defroster, jacked the music a bit louder. Full content visible, double tap to read brief content. J. T. ’s a successful gang leader which besides all the drugs and illegal doings of that gang, he seems more like a successful CEO of a business. This kind of fatalism was foreign to me. Fascinating, upsetting and even a little laugh-out-loud humour, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 25, 2014. Read Now » "[Gangs in America′s Communities] is one of the most comprehensive treatments of gangs in the marketplace. Gang Leader For A Day Sara Schiavone Karla Lopez Kelsey Hyde Alyssa Cady Lisa Sooklal Hayley Malone Social Disorganization Theory: Zone in Transition What Happened Next Criminal behavior is learned through interactions with others Sudhir imitated J.T. I hadn’t come for the crack; I was here on a different mission. Buy Gang Leader for a Day 01 by Venkatesh, Sudhir (ISBN: 9780141030913) from Amazon's Book Store. “Gang Leader for a Day: a rogue sociologist takes to the streets” written by Sudhir Venkatesh demonstrates the inner workings of the Black Kings gang. Look at community police relations and you will see why Black Lives Matter exists. The book is very accessible, the narrative is tight and exciting and the characters are vivid. On one side of the divide lay a beautifully manicured Gothic campus, with privileged students, most of them white, walking to class and playing sports. He wants to learn more about her and what she does as the building president of the Local Advisory Council (LAC). On the pivotal Day for which Venkatesh becomes "Gang Leader" he is given an intimate view of JT's day as he resolves dilemmas many managers will recognise - agency problems, motivational issues, supplier relationships - sometimes in ways most of us as managers don't (often, at least!) It was supposed to be pure sociology but turned out to be gonzo journalism. The lurid nature of inner city. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. (Homeless people or street vendors.) When na ve sociology student Sudhir Venkatesh went to find out more about urban poverty in Chicago, the last thing he expected was to be held hostage by a gang. Susan Clampet‐Lundquist . Allen Lane £18.99, pp299. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. I believe that Sudhir Venkatesh was born with two abnormalities: an overdeveloped curiosity and an underdeveloped sense of fear. Gang Leader for a Day: A Response to the Critics 217 the first sociologist to reach a broader audience - Herbert Gans, William Julius Wilson, Douglass Massey, and others have done so with great aplomb - nor will I be the last. When Venkatesh walked into an abandoned building in one of Chicago's most notorious housing projects, he was looking for people to take a multiple-choice survey on urban poverty. As a graduate student at the University of Chicago, Venkatesh gained groundbreaking access to the Robert Taylor Homes. I should experiment, he said, by borrowing some of their questions and developing new ones as needed. Happy Women's History Month! In between he befriends the residents of the ghetto, listening to their stories,interacting in their lives and humanizing them in the process. In the late 1980s, these isolated parts of the inner cities gripped the nation’s attention. Anybody complaining? 20 New Books on Women’s History. During the course of my research, I had gotten to know the Pattons—a law-abiding family, it should be said—and they treated me kindly, almost like a son. 2021 Golden Globes: All the Best Photos. Please try again. I give this American sociological ethnography, researched in the Chicago housing projects, my highest recommendation for other readers. While reading Sudhir Venkatesh’s book Gang Leader for a Day, use your sociological imagination to identify relevant social problems, concepts, and theories discussed in this course. We’d love your help. Unlike the lily-white suburbs of Southern California where I’d grown up, the son of immigrants from South Asia, here Indians seemed to have a place in the ethnic landscape along with everyone else. I climbed over the other stragglers and walked down to the tenth floor, where the Patton family lived. Gang Leader for a Day: A Response to the Critics 217 the first sociologist to reach a broader audience - Herbert Gans, William Julius Wilson, Douglass Massey, and others have done so with great aplomb - nor will I be the last. There is so little information about and so many stereotypes within mainstream America about how ghettos function, even though thousands of Americans live in them, that this book is a welcome contribution to poverty literature. He is soft-spoken and laconic; he doesn’t volunteer much information. Even the lovely parks across the border were off-limits, we were told, unless you were traveling with a large group or attending a formal event. Patrick’s “Glasgow Gang Observed). But blessed with that outlandish curiosity and unfettered by the sort of commonsensical fear that most of us would experience upon being held hostage by an armed crack gang, as Venkatesh was early on in his research, he kept coming back for more. Especially after interacting with the gang for about three years at this point!) This started out as a rip-roaring read for me. A son of an academic, he arrives at the University of Chicago to do his Ph.D. in Sociology, and then ventures outside of its bubble into the Chicago ghetto, and to the Taylor housing projects. In other words, to reach any important and generalizable conclusion, you need to rely on the statistical analyses of large data sets like the U.S. Census or other massive surveys. Sometimes I’d come upon a picnic, and people would offer me some of their soul food. However, this is a extremely vulgar book. The Lake Park projects looked good, at least on paper, and I randomly chose Building Number 4040, highlighting on my census printout the apartments where young people lived. It is THAT good and currently sitting as my favorite book of the year. Nearly every conversation with Old Time and his friends wound up at the intersection of politics and race. (The police or tenant leaders.) The neighborhood surrounding the Lake Park projects wasn’t much of a neighborhood at all. That’s when the Black Kings saw diminishing prospects for sales and closed up shop for the night. Innovate Your Life In the book, Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh, a sociology student from the University of Chicago starts out simply trying to understand “how it feels to be poor and black,” and ends up spending years and years figuring out the ins and outs of a gang society (Venkatesh 14). He's happy when the gang leader takes an interest in the author's pet project to find out exactly how much everyone's earning and then is shocked, shocked I tell you, when the gang leader uses that to extort more money from people and beat people who have not been paying him enough (this is beyond being dumb – I can't believe anyone wouldn't see that coming! Info. While a graduate student in Chicago, Sudhir Venkatesh spent seven years observing the daily life of the urban poor and the inner workings of a local gang. Chapter 5 Summary: “Ms. I caught Wilson just in time—he was about to go to Paris for a sabbatical. —Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) Show More. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. NO LATE PAPERS ACCEPTED. Sudhir's persistence pays off when, upon his return to the project, the gang's leader invites the impressionable young sociologist to write his biography, and he spends the next seven years immersing himself in this underclass. Lors de l'été 1989, Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, sociologue et ethnographe urbain américain, va suivre la vie des quartiers pauvres de Chicago. I find his methods ethically suspect mostly because of the power dynamics between researcher and subjects - it's never clear whether Venkatesh would go to bat for the Black Kings or the residents of the Robert Taylor homes if pressed by law enforcement. I didn’t need to answer. (The door itself had disappeared long ago.) But as alien as I was to these folks, they were just as alien to me. Simply put - a must read if you live in America. Although “Gang Leader for a Day” is filled with apparently verbatim reports of conversations it’s evident they were actually reconstructions pieced together at some point “after the event”. . He moves up a ladder of the drug business just like a regular business man has the opportunity to do. Perhaps it was because these parks didn’t attract many nonblack visitors, or perhaps it was because in those days I dressed like a Deadhead. One of the undisputedly good things about modern scholarship is that women’s history is finally getting its due.... To see what your friends thought of this book, It's as relevant today as it ever was. Did anybody vet him? This is not to say that it is bleak or a slog. It is the journey of how Venkatesh is able to gain entry into the world of the Black Kings, befriend the leader, and study how the community works around the gang. Like thousands upon thousands of people, he entered graduate school one fall and was dispatched by his professors to do some research. After Gang Leader for a Day caught the eye of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg hired Venkatesh to help Facebook deal with bullying and misinformation. “You got blacks who are beating their heads trying to figure out a way to live where you live!” Charlie continued. 'Gang Leader for a Day' By Sudhir Venkatesh. In fact, my fingers are exhausted from the three times I've already typed it. Aged 16, walking around Chicago in 1971, I … There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. I had been reading several histories of Chicago’s black community, and I sometimes asked these men about the events and people of which I’d read. At the U of C library, I checked the census records to find a tract with poor black families with people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four. Gang Leader For a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Crosses the Line. Can we predict human behavior? resort to. He spends the night parked in a urine-stained, concrete stairwell guarded by gun-toting, teenage members of the Black Kings gang. Raconté par Reg Rogers. TV Movie Pre-production. As he slowly gains J.T. A first-year grad student, he would befriend a gang leader named JT and spend the better part of the next decade inside the projects under JT's protection, documenting what he saw there. Although he had stopped smoking his trademark pipe long ago, he still looked like the kind of professor you see in movies. 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