MLA Chicago. 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. (Homeless people or street vendors.) 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 mone. The stories are personal and specific while painting a picture of a much larger world. These stories detail the dis. Welcome back. Translate texts with the world's best machine translation technology, developed by the creators of Linguee. How does one go about reviewing a book whose major premise is that, unless you live it, you can’t understand it? I also became really frustrated about just how naive he was...I suppose he couldn't have gotten himself into his position had he not been, but man, you can see him screwing with the tenants' lives fro. Venkatesh's access enabled him to develop a comprehensive and unique understandi. 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. Among the key issues are the demarcation of the bo. Gang Leader For A Day : A Rogue Sociologist 1589 Words | 7 Pages. Venkatesh's moxy (or naivete) certainly sets out for a sensational premise, in every sense of the word. Incriminated by his accomplice, New York City. . 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. Even after spending years in the projects, he still doesn't know how things work. MLA Chicago. Some of them were even involved in charity work within the projects they lived in. As a graduate student at the University of Chicago, Venkatesh gained groundbreaking access to the Robert Taylor Homes. In fact, my fingers are exhausted from the three times I've already typed it. As a recent Chicago resident, I found this book fascinating (and a pretty horrifying at times). Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. This is an amazing story of how a grad student stumbled across a drug-dealing gang in Chicago and ended up spending several years with them as part of a research project. In the pages of Gang Leader for a Day , we meet a cast of characters so astonishing that they could only be real: J. In this book he takes sociology to a whole new level by becoming a part of the community he was studying. A nice touch. How embarrassing! This book was recommended by a friend who had just finished it as well as Freakonomics. A great leader leads the people from within them! You heard of people leaving you for others? *Note: The author of this book, Sudhir Venkatesh, has a very long name.