Sudhir Venkatesh Timeline

Thank Y u!

Present

2013

2009

Floating City

Columbia University

Divorce and Depression

2008

At the Top of My Voice

2007

Gang Leader for a Day

2006

• Venkatesh still an ambitious player

• Briefly led the University’s social science center

• $250,000 undocumented or fabricated money disappeared

• Worked on unapproved research projects and directed funding without documentation

2005

An Empirical Analysis of Street-Level Prostitution

• Marriage falling apart

• Depressed because not getting enough access to enough individuals

• “slow unraveling of mental health”

• Remarks about missing Chicago and how NYC is so different

Off the Books

2000

Why Do Drug Dealers

Still Live With Their Moms?

1997

• Venkatesh uncovers the “underground economy” of the projects

• Random linkages between various people in this economy
• Local doctors received home cooked meals in exchange for services
• A prostitute receives free groceries by offering her services to the local grocer
• Police officers turn blind eye in exchange for information from a gang member

American Project

1988

Quotes from Venkatesh

1966

• Cocaine industry modeled like the McDonald pyramid of power

• 100 franchises in the Black Gangster Disciple Nation

• The top 120 men in pyramid were paid handsomely

• Remaining 20,000 rank-and-file members paid $3.30 an hour

Sudhir Venkatesh

• Received a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago

Reviews and Praise

• "Was I a good bookkeeper? Not by any stretch. I was overwhelmed."

• “The article also suggests that I work outside the boundaries of mainstream sociology. I plead guilty. My discipline is stuffy and losing relevance daily in the academic and public eye.”

• Born in Chennai, India

• Received a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of California, San Diego

Reviews and Praise

American Project

• “[Venkatesh] [...] discovers a thriving system of licit and illicit exchange [...] Venkatesh argues that under-the-table transactions work to further separate their participants from the economic mainstream.”—Benjamin Healy, The Atlantic

• Mix reviews of 3.6/5 (goodreads.com)
• Positive: Informs the public on the degree of symbiosis among the various players in the underground economy
• Negative: Venkatesh offers no recipe for how to solve any of the problems he described

• About the trials and tribulations of gang-lifestyle

• Located in a Chicago abandoned housing project

• Spent six years with the gang

• Was very well-received (4 out of 5 on goodreads)

• Much controversy over how it was written

• Venkatesh challenges the stereotypical notion that public housing fails because its residents do.”—Doubletake

• GoodReads Rating: 3.7/5
• The book has mostly mixed reviews
• Negative: “questionable objectivity”
• Positive: “in-depth exploration”

• Explores a decade of day-to-day living in Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes

• Chicago homes subject to gang violence, overpopulation, and government neglect

• Venkatesh challenges the stereotypes of the “projects” and gives the tenants a voice

• Another documentary which focuses on human rights

• Life of Irakli Kakabadze and Anna Dolidze

• Gave up peaceful life in America

• Transition from socialism to deliberative democracy

• Shows Venkatesh was an aspiring filmmaker

• Venketesh is now a professor at Columbia, not a naïve student

• People in NY “float” around, pursuing opportunities in the underground economy across all race/class/gender lines

• Calls himself “haunted” by some of the subjects he studies

• Fails to produce formal academic research

• Gets caught up in the lives of others and focuses on individual stories

• Continues emphasizing his own brand of ethnographic research

• Book received mixed reviews (3.3/5)

Dislocation

• His raw research is available online but it is not complete

• Collected data through a partnership with pimps and prostitutes

• Interviewed about 160 prostitutes over 2,200 tricks

• Sex with police officers

• Overshadowed by “Gang Leader for a Day”

Dustin, Ojel, Macauley, Nate

Abhidya

• Project home families struggle after a 6-month eviction notice

• Housing Authority will only help the "good" tenants

• The film tells the irony of the process

• Documentary about young social worker named Chitra Abhidya

• Abidhya wasn’t exposed to effects of 9/11

• Accepted a job counseling families, and was overwhelmed

• Different than Venkatesh’s writings

FBI

Career Arc

• Learned what methods of gathering research worked well

• Determined to keep working on projects despite negative feedback

• Discovered that the niche of studying gangs is his passion

• Served as a roving adviser on issues related to gang related crime for the FBI

• Increased difficulty to get interviews and personal stories

• Took down websites, reduced information, became less accessible, did less academic work

• “Look, I’m a scholar. I’m a sociologist. I have a particular way I do my work.” He added: “I’m really proud of it. I’d like to have that be the basis on which I’m known.” – successful development of career niche

Works Cited

"American Project." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

"American Project." American Project. Harvard University Press, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

Brook, Daniel. "Sudhir Venkatesh’s ‘Floating City,’ and More." The New York Times. The New York Times, 04 Jan. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

"Dislocation (2005)." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

"Gang Leader for a Day." Goodreads. N.p., 10 Jan. 2008. Web. 09 Oct. 2014.

"Gang Leader for a Day: Sudhir Venkatesh." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

Kamerman, Larry. "At the Top of My Voice." At the Top of My Voice. Genco Film Company, 2008. Web. 09 Oct. 2014.

Kaminer, Ariel. "Columbia’s Gang Scholar Lives on the Edge." The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 Dec. 2012. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

Levitt, Steven. "Why Drug Dealers Live With Their Moms." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 24 Apr. 2005. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

Sandhu, Sukhdev. "Floating City, by Sudhir Venkatesh, Review." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 03 Oct. 2013. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

Venkatesh, Sudhir A. "Abhidya." Sudhir Venkatesh. Sudhir Venkatesh, 2009. Web. 09 Oct. 2014.

Venkatesh, Sudhir A. "An Empirical Analysis of Street-Level Prostitution." (2007): 1-48. University of Chicago. Department of Economics, Sept. 2007. Web. 9 Oct. 2014.

Venkatesh, Sudhir Alladi. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.

Venkatesh, Sudhir. "Venkatesh Responds to the NYT." Bwog Venkatesh Responds to the NYT Comments. BWOG, 02 Dec. 2012. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

Venkatesh, Sudhir. "Sudhir Venkatesh Responds to the Freakonomics Community." Freakonomics Blog. N.p., 03 Dec. 2012. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

"Off the Books." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.

Venkatesh, Sudhir. "The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor." NPR. NPR, 4 Oct. 2006. Web. 05 Oct. 2014.