Book Reading: Gang Leader for a Day

I never really ever thought that a sociology book could be interesting. That is until I read Gang Leader for a Day.

One of the interesting things I enjoyed about the book was that it was a real, visceral study of the projects and what goes on in gangs. I feel one of the big mistakes that sociologists make is the sanitation of the data. What I mean by that is that, even if the study is on a group of people, the sociologists just focus on the data without looking at the implications behind the data.

For example, we see studies all the time about the unemployment or homeless rates. But to us, those are just figures. They don't apply to us. We can't imagine them or picture what they actually mean. I think Venkatesh realized that. As opposed to just asking questions and collecting statistics, he builds relationships and explores what it means to live in the projects and to live by being involved with the gangs. If sociologists want to study society, what better way is there than to engulf yourself within a given community?

Towards the end of the book, you find that the projects that all those people rely on are being torn down. I can't help but think that if the president had gone and lived among those people like Sudhir, some other alternative would have been reached. Instead, the president was probably delivered a nice clean report that detailed the small amount of population and the large gang activity.

You can't study society with data alone. To truly study society, one must be engage, interact, and learn about the life of one in the society.