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Introduction: Sociology's Urban Explorers<br/>Richard E. Ocejo<br/>PART I: DATA COLLECTION STRATEGIES<br/>Section I: Being There, Up Close ,<br/>Introduction<br/>Richard E. Ocejo<br/>1 Cans, HJ. 1962. "Redevelopment of the West End," The Urban Villagers:<br/>Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans. New York: The Free Press:<br/>281;288-298.<br/>From his classic work The Urban Villagers, in this selection Herbert Gans analyzes how an Italian-<br/>American community reacts to impending displacement. By living in their Boston neighborhood<br/>Gans discovers how the primacy of the family and peer group in the lives of these working-class<br/>Italians and the "urban village" community that they constructed influences their inaction against<br/>displacement and the destruction of their neighborhood.<br/>2 Bourgois, P. 1995. "Families and Chiltlren in Pain," In Search of Respect: Selling<br/>Crack in El Barrio. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 259-267; 272-276.<br/>This piece showcases how Philippe Bourgois immerses himself in East Harlem ("El Barrio ) to<br/>understand the daily struggles and hardships of families and children in this dangerous and unstable<br/>environment. From living in the neighborhood and having a young son, Bourgois learns both the<br/>important role that children play among residents, as well as the harsh realities that they and their<br/>mothers face.<br/>3 Lloyd, R. 2006. "The Celebrity Neighborhood," Neo-Bohemia: Art and<br/>Commerce in the Postindustrial City. New York: Routledge: 123-143.<br/>In this selection Richard Lloyd takes us inside the gentrifying Chicago neighborhood of Wicker<br/>Park to show how a bohemian aesthetic and work ethic gets contested within and integrated into .i<br/>commercial nightlife scene. By living in Wicker Park and participating in its arts scene., Lloyd discov<br/>ers the importance of leisure spaces in its construction and in transforming it into a postindustrial<br/>neighborhood of cultural production.<br/>4 Pattillo, M. 2008. "The Black Bourgeoisie Meets the Truly Disadvantaged,"<br/>Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City. Chicago:<br/>University of Chicago Press: 86-100.<br/>Seeing herself as a gentrifier in North Kenwood-Oakland, Mary Pattillo examines the intra-racial<br/>conflicts between newcomers and existing residents that emerge in a neighborhood experiencing<br/>"black gentrification." As one of the newcomers against whom working-class residents show wari<br/>ness and hostility, her work demonstrates the difficulties ethnographers face in immersing them<br/>selves in their field sites.<br/>5 Perez, G. M. 2004. "Los de Afuera, Transnationalism, and the Cultural Politics<br/>of Identity," The Near Northwest Side Story. Berkeley: University of<br/>California Press: 92-94; 96-110.<br/>This piece pushes the community study beyond the boundaries of the urban neighborhood as Gina<br/>Perez goes to Humboldt Park in Chicago as well as San Sebastian in Puerto Rico to examine the trans<br/>national lives and identities of Puerto Rican migrants. An example of "multi-sited ethnography,"<br/>Perez's study highlights the importance of immersion across spatial boundaries to experience and<br/>understand the impact of social contexts and spatial and cultural distance on people's lives.<br/>Section II: Being on the Job<br/>o<br/>Introduction<br/>Richard E. Ocejo<br/>6 Duneier, M. 1999. "A Christmas on Sixth Avenue," Sidewalk. New York:<br/>Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 253-256; 260-279.<br/>Along with his extensive observations of vendors, Mitchell Duneier also gets behind the table to<br/>see the sidewalk from their perspective. In this selection he demonstrates the complex relationship<br/>between the police and the vendors when he creates a situation through which an officer confronts<br/>him.<br/>7 Moskos, P. 2008. "The Corner: Life on the Streets," Cop in the Hood:<br/>My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern District. Princeton: Princeton<br/>University Press: 64-66; 77-88.<br/>Peter Moskos in this study goes through the Baltimore police academy and becomes an officer for a<br/>year. He provides a first-hand account of the varying perspectives and interpretations of their duties<br/>and decisions that officers make while policing in the inner city.<br/>8 Grazian, D. 2003. "Like Therapy: The Blues Club as a Haven," Blue Chicago:<br/>The Search for Authenticity in Urban Blues Clubs. Chicago: University<br/>of Chicago Press: 87—90; 105—116.<br/>In this study David Grazian discovers the multiple interpretations that different actors have of<br/>"authenticity" in blues clubs. This piece shows how he uses his own musical abilities on the saxo<br/>phone to reveal how a community of blues club regulars construct notions of authenticity and<br/>socialize people into the group.<br/>9 Wynn, J.R. 2005. "Guiding Practices: Storytelling Tricks for Reproducing<br/>the Urban Landscape," Qualitative Sociology, 28, 4: 399-400; 404-413.<br/>As Jonathan Wynn shows, walking tour guides use storytelling tricks to weave imaginative urban<br/>narratives for their participants that parallel some of the tricks that sociologists use in their own<br/>work. By becoming a tour guide, Wynn also demonstrates the value of taking the role of the other<br/>in terms of validating claims.<br/>10 Trimbur, L. 2011. "'Tough Love': Mediation and Articulation in the<br/>Urban Boxing Gym," Ethnography, 12, 3: 334—336; 339—343; 346-350.<br/>The boxing gym is often seen as a male domain, but Lucia Trimbur does not just enter it as a female<br/>ethnographer, she also enters the ring to experience the rigors behind the craft of boxing as well as<br/>the duties of trainers. This piece focuses on the conflicting discourses that trainers use to coach their<br/>amateur fighters inside and outside of the ring.<br/>11 Bender, C. 2003. "What We Talk about When We Talk about Religion,"<br/>Heaven's Kitchen: Living Religion at God's Love We Deliver. Chicago:<br/>University of Chicago Press: 92-103.<br/>By exploring a unique field site, Courtney Bender examines how people talk about religion and<br/>act religiously outside of typical settings like places of worship and the home. When she becomes a<br/>volunteer and working in the kitchen at the charity God's Love We Deliver, Bender enters into an<br/>ongoing conversation filled with subtle but meaningful religious themes, which allows her to both<br/>collect and generate data on the role of religion in everyday talk.<br/>PART II: RELATIONSHIPS WITH PARTICIPANTS<br/>Section I: Crossing Boundaries<br/>Introduction<br/>Richard E. Ocejo<br/>12 Whyte, W.F. 1943. "Doc and His Boys," Street Corner Society: The Social<br/>Structure of an Italian Slum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 14-25.<br/>In the selection from this classic example of participant observation research, William Foote Whyte<br/>discusses the importance of bowling scores for social prestige within an Italian gang, including what<br/>happens when he out-bowls its members. Whyte's account reveals both the importance of overcom<br/>ing social boundaries as well as their abiding salience.<br/>13 Liebow, E. 1967. "Men and Jobs," Tally's Corner: A Study of Negro<br/>Streetcorner Men. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company: 61-71.<br/>In Tally's Corner Elliot Liebow navigates numerous social boundaries to provide an in-depth analy<br/>sis of the social world of black streetcorner men. In this selection he discovers the meanings the men<br/>construct for their work opportunities and the importance of peer groups in their lives. His "chainlink<br/>fence" metaphor for the ethnographer-participant relationship endures as a characterization of<br/>the limits of immersion.<br/>14 Stack, C. 1974. "The Flats" and "Swapping: What Goes Around Comes<br/>Around," All Our Kin. New York: Basic Books: 11-17; 32-43.<br/>Race is a significant social barrier for ethnographers to navigate, and in this study Carol Stack, a<br/>white anthropologist, enters into and contributes to an inner city African-American kinship lu rwork<br/>to reveal the importance of non-blood kin relations for impoverished families. Her identity as a<br/>mother with a young son aids her in overcoming social distance and forming a close relationship<br/>with her main informant.<br/>15 Venkatesh, S. 2002. "'Doin' the Hustle': Constructing the Ethnographer<br/>in the American Ghetto," Ethnography, 3,1: 91-92; 96-103.<br/>Ethnographers are trained to analyze the thoughts and perceptions that their participants have<br/>about their own lives, but rarely do they consider the thoughts and perceptions their participants<br/>have about them. In this piece Sudhir Venkatesh discovers that the "hustle" principle that permeates<br/>life in the Chicago housing project he studies is also applied to him and his fieldwork by its residents.<br/>Such reflection casts a critical lens on the ethnographer's role in the field at the same time as it aids<br/>him in his own analysis.<br/>16 Cavan, S. 1966. "The Marketplace Bar," Liquor License: An Ethnography of<br/>Bar Behavior. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company: 171-177; 193-200.<br/>Along with race, gender is often another important social boundary between ethnographers and<br/>their participants. In this study from the 1960s, Sherri Cavan examines gender relations in pickup<br/>nightspots. She often uses her gender to position herself in the world of male-dominated bars and<br/>analyze how social interaction between men and women works in them.<br/>17 Auyero, J. 8c Swistun, D. 2009. "The Compound and the Neighborhood,"<br/>Elatnmable: Environmental Suffering in an Argentine Shantytown. Oxford:<br/>Oxford University Press: 28-31; 32-44.<br/>In this co-authored study on the people in an impoverished and highly contaminated shantytown<br/>and their reactions to their hazardous surrounding conditions, Javier Auyero and Debora Swis<br/>tun use the "photo-elicitation" method with the town's children to learn how they understand<br/>their environment. Through this method they overcome the age gap that exists between them while<br/>remaining sensitive to the vulnerability of their population.<br/>Section II: Doing the Right Thing<br/>Introduction<br/>Richard E. Ocejo<br/>18 Humphreys, L. 1975. "The People Next Door," Tearoom Trade: Impersonal<br/>Sex in Public Places. Piscataway: Aldine Transactions: 106-111; 114-122.<br/>This controversial work by Laud Humphreys is among the most mentioned in courses and textbooks<br/>that discuss ethics in sociological research. This selection showcases the actual data that Humphreys<br/>gathered and the analysis he conducted on impersonal homosexual sex in public places.<br/>19 Ferrell, J. 1993. Denver Graffiti and the Syndicate Scene," Cn'mes o/^Sty/e;<br/>Urban Graffiti and the Politics of Criminality. Boston: Northeastern<br/>University Press: 21-26; 49-53.<br/>It is not uncommon for ethnographers to engage in illegal activities with their participants, and in<br/>this piece Jeff Ferrell joins a group of graffiti writers in Denver as they reveal the importance of style<br/>in constructing their subcultural community. Ferrell argues that he engaged in illegal activities with<br/>his participants to experience their world and validate their claims, but places limits on doing so for<br/>all activities.<br/>20 Contreras, R. 2009. '"Damn, Yo—Who's That Girl.'' An Ethnographic<br/>Analysis of Masculinity in Drug Robberies," Journal of Contemporary<br/>Ethnography, 38, 4: 465—466; 474-483.<br/>In this work, Randoi Contreras deals with a number of ethical issues from studying drug robbers<br/>who regularly engage in violent acts. In this piece he focuses on their mistreatment and e.xploitation<br/>of women in their robberies. Contreras's work exemplifies situations when participants engage in<br/>behaviors that fieldworkers are morally against.<br/>/ |
