Bourgois, P., & Richard Perry University Professor of Anthropology & Family and Community Medicine Philippe Bourgois; Professsor. (2003). In search of respect: Selling crack in el Barrio. Cambridge University Press.
Summary of the Article
The Topic Covered in the Book
In the book, In Search of Respect, the primary topic covered in chapter one is how the social marginalization data was collected. The author, Philippe Bourgois, intended to use the data to document how economic marginalization and racial segregation on many African-American and Latino citizens were imposed. Although the chapter explores the underground (untaxed) economy, including unlicensed off-track betting, baby-sitting, and curbside car repairing, drug dealing is a primary theme.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The Main Argument of the Study
This study’s primary contribution was to create an alternative and critical understanding of New York City in the United States. Poverty was one of the reasons that most individuals were in the untaxed underground economy practices. Statistically, the cost of living in Manhattan was relatively high for most individuals to afford minimal groceries and rent and still pay their other bills, including gas and electricity bills. Therefore, the official statistics indicate that most individuals in the area were expected to be dressed in rags, starving, and homeless. However, the neighborhoods in East Harlem, New York, were using the alternative income-generating strategies in question to generate minimal amenities that United States citizens considered to be necessities.
Author’s Conceptualization of the Primary Concepts in the Study
Bourgois forms his ideas logically, whereby he considers various factors that forced the residents to get involved in alternative income-generating strategies. For instance, he outlines the poverty concept as the main reason why the drug trade dominates in EI Barrio, resulting in law enforcers, residents, and wary outsiders being in a culture of terror.
The Methodology Informing the Study
Since the study’s phenomena were illegal, it was challenging to gain information through general or official statistics. As a result, Bourgois conducted his research through the qualitative ethnographic methodology to address conventional quantitative studies failures in American inner-city environments. Consequently, Bourgois moved to EI Barrio, where he could with the residents and gathered adequate data to understand the street culture, underground economy, and the crack houses.
Unquestionably, the author’s interactions with the East Harlem residents enable him to collect adequate and correct data for his research. For instance, he learned about the interconnected economic and social factors that led the youths to join the drug trade. Lack of opportunities in the legal economy and the legacy of racism and colonialism are factors in question.
Lastly, the author analyzed the results he collected through interpretations of his findings. Consequently, he uses these interpretations as evidence to develop academic theories.
Conclusions in the Article
In conclusion, Bourgois shows how both individual decisions and structural factors contribute to the individuals’ fate he studies. Additionally, he develops an alternative and critical United States’ inner-city understanding.
Critical Assessment of the Article
Study Limitations
Although Bourgois argues that the most effective way to survey and study this field is through qualitative observation, this method poses significant challenges. For instance, the researcher must avoid the profoundly elitist tendencies of anthropology. The avoidance in question helps in ignoring the concrete suffering of the individuals under study. Consequently, this might have hindered the author’s ability to express the primary challenge that makes the individuals under the survey take specific actions.
The Bourgois findings would have been misleading if they had collected their data from different samples. Due to the economic activities that take place in East Harlem, including the drug trade, most residents never show up on the official surveys. As a result, the data available from different samples might be misleading or inadequate.
Arguably, this study’s primary concepts were effectively conceptualized since they were based on the real issues that the residents go through. Also, they represented the real problems on the ground. If the primary concepts were conceptualized differently, the findings would not have been genuine.
Study Similarities to Other Articles
The arguments of this study are similar to those of other articles. They are based on facts and majorly focus on addressing the primary issues that face the residents. Also, the arguments are realistic and can be supported by the problems in the area.
Use of Theoretical Frameworks
Unquestionably, the issue handled in this study was relatively sensitive. The anthropological research relies more on interpretation, and it is open to its reader’s interpretations. As a result, the theoretical frameworks applied to the study were efficient and adequate.
