• Home
  • Videos
  • Pics
  • Blog
  • Modules
  • About Us
  @TheSocyCinema

@thesocycinema / videos

Learning Ethnography from a "Rogue Sociologist"

8/13/2014

0 Comments

 
PictureSudhir Venkatesh's ethnography examines a Chicago gang.
Tags: crime/law/deviance, methodology/statistics, organizations/occupations/work, prejudice/discrimination, rural/urban, ethnography, poverty, qualitative methodology, 00 to 05 mins
Year: 2008
Length: 4:10
Access: YouTube

Summary: In Sudhir Venkatesh's book, Gang Leader for a Day, he's billed as a "rogue sociologist," but the truth is his ethnographic method of research is anything but rogue. Sociologists have been conducting ethnographies for quite some time, as this method has long been recognized to have several distinct advantages over other research methods. In this video, which is based on the book, Venkatesh explains that he started the research by tracking down a number of gang members in a poor community and asking them questions about their everyday lives. At first, the gang believed he was a member of a rival Mexican street gang, and held him hostage for a day, before finally letting him go and ultimately agreeing to let him tag along as they went about their daily lives. The clip is useful as a rather vivid explanation of an ethnographic research design. In addition to touching on many of the distinct characteristics of ethnographic work, the clip can serve as a launching pad for discussing many of the method’s strengths. For instance, working in this tradition, Venkatesh was able to build trust with gang members, allowing him to work out a number of the details of gang life that likely would not have been disclosed in a survey or interview. Unlike other research designs, by spending a long period of time in the community the gang controlled, Venkatesh was able to bear witness and analyze emergent, often unanticipated phenomena. Similarly, the ethnographic method allowed Venkatesh to acquire more of a processual understanding of the interactions between the gang and community, and in many ways, exploded the myth that the gang’s interactions with the community were strictly coercive. As Venkatesh recounts, the gang often gave people small gifts of cash to help people get by and ultimately win their favor. As for weaknesses, while it is tempting to conclude from the video that ethnography is an inherently dangerous method, there are no protocols forcing ethnographers to choose dangerous research sites or put themselves in harm's way. Instead, the findings from ethnographies tend to be limited to the local group or population being studied. In other words, the findings often lack generalizability. Note that this is the second video on The Sociological Cinema featuring the ethnographic field work of Sudhir Venkatesh.

Submitted By: Lester Andrist

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Tags

    All
    00 To 05 Mins
    06 To 10 Mins
    11 To 20 Mins
    21 To 60 Mins
    61+ Mins
    Abortion/Reproduction
    Aging/Life Course
    Art/Music
    Biology
    Bodies
    Capitalism
    Children/Youth
    Class
    Commodification
    Community
    Consumption/Consumerism
    Corporations
    Crime/Law/Deviance
    Culture
    Demography/Population
    Disability
    Discourse/Language
    Du Bois
    Durkheim
    Economic Sociology
    Education
    Emotion/Desire
    Environment
    Food/Agriculture
    Foucault
    Gender
    Globalization
    Goffman
    Government/The State
    Health/Medicine
    Historical Sociology
    Immigration/Citizenship
    Inequality
    Intersectionality
    Knowledge
    Lgbtq
    Marketing/Brands
    Marriage/Family
    Marx/Marxism
    Media
    Methodology/Statistics
    Multiculturalism
    Nationalism
    Organizations/Occupations/Work
    Political Economy
    Politics/Election/Voting
    Prejudice/Discrimination
    Psychology/Social Psychology
    Race/Ethnicity
    Religion
    Rural/Urban
    Science/Technology
    Sex/Sexuality
    Social Construction
    Social Mvmts/Social Change/Resistance
    Sports
    Subtitles/CC
    Theory
    Violence
    War/Military
    Weber

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @TheSocyCinema

    .

    Got any videos?

    Are you finding useful videos for your classes? Do you have good videos you use in your own classes? Please consider submitting your videos here and helping us build our database!

     

    Creative Commons License
​About Us      |      Facebook      |      Twitter      |      Pinterest      |      Tumblr
Creative Commons
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Pics
  • Blog
  • Modules
  • About Us