Inside Job

As a U. of C. grad student, Sudhir Venkatesh talked his way inside a crack-dealing gang at the notorious Robert Taylor Homes and befriended its charismatic leader. Now, in a new book, this "rogue sociologist" tells of his up-close—at times perhaps too close—encounter with gang life

By Michael Stone

(page 6 of 6)

As he withdrew into the world of his research, Venkatesh also became alienated from many of his professors and colleagues, who took a dim view of his participatory brand of sociology as subjective and narrow. Sometimes called urban ethnography, Venkatesh's approach had been pioneered at the University of Chicago but had fallen into disfavor by the 1960s, when mainstream sociologists embraced the breadth and rigor of large-scale surveys and quantitative analysis.

Venkatesh's adviser, William Julius Wilson, did try to encourage his efforts, but when Venkatesh outlined his actions in the stairwell, even Wilson told him to take a time-out.

Q: Why did Wilson tell you to stop?
A: I think he felt I was getting too close to the material. I was becoming angry, depressed—keeping everything in.
I felt I wasn't doing academic work, that it wouldn't be viewed as scientifically rigorous or even as sociology.

Q: Do you think you could have accomplished as much without getting as involved as you did?
A: The only way to begin learning about another world is to understand that you have an emotional stake in it. That's where it has to start. I think that's what I discovered after doing this research.

Q: Do you think your approach led you to understand the world of the projects?
A: Where most sociologists were looking at causes of crime, I was blessed to look at reactions to crime. We were all trying to prevent the ill effects of poverty and dysfunctional public housing. But I was able to see how folks actually responded to those conditions, how the community functioned—and that here was a community.
Social science defines the poor by what they don't possess—no jobs, no fathers at home, no safe streets. And what I saw, what I looked at, was what was in place, not what was missing, and we can learn from that.

* * *

After her building was demolished, Mrs. Bailey moved to another low-income neighborhood, but she lived out her remaining days without ever regaining the power she had held at the Robert Taylor Homes. J.T. retired from the drug-selling business a few years after Venkatesh ended his research in the projects. J.T. currently manages several small businesses owned by relatives and lives off the money he saved while working and consulting for the Black Kings.

Venkatesh says that the citywide gangs operating during the era of his research have largely fragmented into smaller groups whose members tend to age out after high school. The demand for drugs, especially crack, has declined, and the population of users once concentrated in the high-rise projects is now dispersed throughout the city.

Today, while continuing to examine the Chicago Housing Authority, Venkatesh is researching a book on the veiled worlds of Arab immigrant communities in France and cocaine dealers and privileged youths in New York.