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Although Venkatesh’s findings are sociologically interesting what particularly concerns us here is how his research can be used to highlight some of the advantages and disadvantages of participant observation in a contemporary setting. Venkatesh’s study was based around overt participant observation – the people he was
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Jun 30, 2017 · Participant observation is one the main research methods on the A level sociology syllabus, but many of the examples in the main text books are painfully out of date. This post provides some more recent examples of research studies which employed participant observation as their main research method.
Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh (born 1966) is an American sociologist and urban ethnographer. He is William B. Ransford Professor of Sociology & African-American Studies at Columbia University, a position he has held since 1999. In his work, Venkatesh has studied gangs and underground economies, public housing, advertising and technology. [1]
Resources here include an overview of overt participant observation based around Venkatesh's "Gang Leader for a Day" study and an activity requiring students to complete and analyse a self-report questionnaire.
We begin with discussing Sociology and how it is a study of society. Key theories such as Functionalism, Marxism, Feminism, New Right and Postmodernism are initially explored.
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.
People also ask
How did Venkatesh become a gang member?
Who is Sudhir Venkatesh in gang leader for a day?
What ethnicity is Venkatesh?
Why did Venkatesh conduct overt participant observation?
Sudhir Venkatesh, a graduate student in sociology at the University of Chicago, begins Gang Leader for a Day by describing a crack den in a project on the South Side of that city. Sudhir says he is not there to do drugs, but to observe people as they buy them, do them, and sell them.
