Reading: Gang Leader for a Day

 HW:  Read Gang Leader for a Day Introduction by Sudhir Venkatesh

For this excerpt in a Word format you can click here.

Gang Leader For A Day is a book written for popular consumption by Sudhir Venkatesh.  Venkatesh went to the U of Chicago to study sociology. In his quest to conduct research that would help him make a name for himself, he naively put himself into harm’s way.  The excerpt below is from the book's introduction.  As you read, look for the different ways that Venkatesh tries to gather data for his research.  Also, think about what data he gathers is reliable or useful and in what ways.

NOTE: Venkatesh's original publication contained words, including racial epithets, that may be considered offensive by some today. These words were not included in a way meant to be offensive or inflammatory, but instead, the author, Venkatesh was trying to relay his conversations as accurately as possible to the reader.  Nevertheless, I have tried to redact the most offensive words in this excerpt.

For perspective, above is a picture of how the Lake Park Housing Projects looked before they were torn down.

For more info on the Chicago Housing Projects, see this multimedia presentation from UCLA about the Robert Taylor Homes.

Here is a history of high rise public housing from a UC Berkley professor.

Read this critique of Venkatesh's work and answer the question below.

For more info on Venkatesh's work:

• Gang Leader for a Day on Amazon. 
• Read an excerpt from the book and download Venkatesh reading and talking about his book from NPR. 
• Venkatesh speaking on the Colbert Report and he explains that there are important ways of doing research correctly.
• Venkatesh speaking about his book and the research he did.  
• An interview at slate.com between Venkatesh and Alex Kotlowitz (There Are No Children Here).