The ethnographer and his dealer

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In the shoes of a gang leader does not aim to offer a sociological analysis of the organization of “ gangs », a well-established research tradition in the United States and of which the comparative study carried out over more than a decade by Martín Sanchez Jankowski constitutes the centerpiece (Jankowski 1991). Published in 2008 in its original version, Gang Leader for a Day (Venkatesh 2008) is now available in a good French translation and should rather be considered as the methodological appendix that was missing from Off the Books (Venkatesh 2006), ethnographic dive into the heart of the black ghetto of Chicago (see the report on the life of ideas). The publication of the work in the catalog of The School of Leisure could be surprising given the academic position of Venkatesh, professor at Columbia: the style of writing chosen and the absence of footnotes and bibliographical references in however, make an unclassifiable book, simultaneously an initiatory story accessible to all audiences, an ethnographer’s manual and a personal tribute to “ J.T. », the leader of the Black Kings who accompanied the author in his exploration of the ghetto.

Sociology and serendipity

Upon his arrival from California in the fall of 1989, Sudhir Venkatesh, like all students at the University of Chicago, was advised not to venture outside the areas patrolled by campus security forces, duly marked on a map which is distributed to them. The apprentice sociologist then resided on the edge of Woodlawn, a poor African-American neighborhood where another illustrious doctoral student began and then devoted himself to “ body and soul » in boxing at almost the same period (Wacquant 1989).

Ignoring the warnings, Venkatesh feels attracted to these types of spaces which were unknown to him until now and often walks there, attracting the attention of their inhabitants due to his attire. hippie » and his Indian origin. After consulting census records, he went one November afternoon to a public housing project in Oakland, about two miles from campus, to administer questionnaires. Kicked out by dealers installed in the lobby of a first building, he manages to take the stairs of a neighboring tower and comes across “ young guys playing dice for money » (p. 22), who do not intend to let him leave like this. Mistaken for a Mexican on a reconnaissance mission for a rival gang, he is searched and then detained for the night by the Black Kings, of whom he quickly understands that dealing crack is one of the main sources of income.

Like Loïc Wacquant, who entered the Boys Club at the invitation of a friend without suspecting that this gymnasium would become for him a privileged observation post of the black ghetto (Wacquant 1989), Venkatesh is then very far away to imagine that he is about to meet a gatekeeper with whom he will quickly form a special bond, and whose status as gang leader will exempt him – among other privileges – from the painful entry fee that the ethnographer may be forced to pay to gain the trust of a gang : demonstrate your physical resistance (Jankowski 1991).

A plea for ethnographic investigation

While Venkatesh still doesn’t know if they will let him go, one of the Black Kings orders him to ask one of the questions on his list. The captive student: “ How do you feel about being black and poor? ? » (p. 24). The obvious inadequacy to the situation in which he finds himself, armed with a questionnaire which had nevertheless been entrusted to him by the eminent William Julius Wilson, is underlined upon his arrival on the scene by JT, at the same time dismayed by the previous episode and intrigued by Venkatesh’s interest. While the young investigator assures him that the sole objective of his visit is to collect data, the gang leader is definitive: “ You’ll learn nothing from this thing » (p. 27). J.T. then invites him to listen rather than come and ask questions:

You shouldn’t go around asking them knot-the-bones questions. With people like us, you have to spend time, get to know what we do and how we do it. You have to understand how young people live on the streets. (pg. 32)

An indigenous plea for ethnographic investigation, this lesson administered during their first meeting reinforces Venkatesh in his desire to deviate from the quantitative approach to the social world, then dominant among his teachers. ; he decides to return to the cities of Lake Park to “ find J.T. and his gang » (p. 33) and begins, as it were, his investigation “ under cover » from his university supervisors, initially only sharing the “ bare minimum » (p. 50) about his fieldwork to his thesis advisor (Wilson). Venkatesh feels alone among the “ graduate students glued to their computers searching data stores for a hidden pattern that would reveal the real causes of poverty » (p. 50), but who have never set foot in the ghetto. This methodological posture “ on the verge of rebellion » (p. 50) will however allow him to access first-hand quantitative data on the economic organization of the Black Kings, absolutely impossible to obtain by any other means than through that of the confidence created by the prolonged presence on the ground. It will also allow Venkatesh to spend a whole day “ in the skin » from JT, who offers it to him after being provoked about the ease with which he makes a living. This unexpected offer gives him access to all of the activities that make up an ordinary day for a gang leader, to new spaces and new faces, but above all to the numerous arbitrations and decisions that mark the daily life of a gang leader. J.T.

Between initiatory story and ethnographer’s manual

The restitution of this unique immersion experience illustrates the protean character of the work, at the same time captivating initiatory story and ethnographer’s manual. Sudhir Venkatesh gives a very personal feedback on his experience of taming a difficult terrain and quite far from his previous experiences, while offering a multitude of reflections relating to the practice of ethnographic investigation and the methodological and ethical difficulties that ‘she lifts.

In the shoes of a gang leader thus offers an uncompromising look at the confrontation of morality middle class from young Venkatesh to that of the inhabitants of the ghetto. Only really becoming aware of residential segregation on an ethno-racial basis in Chicago, the ethnographer shows retrospectively and with great honesty a certain naivety. The work is run through by his astonishment, particularly with regard to the action of the police in the ghetto:

I had grown up with the idea that you could count on the police when things went wrong. Obviously that wasn’t how things worked here, even for me. (pg. 269)

The reader, however, sees Venkatesh’s reflexivity assert itself as he gradually acquires “ cultural skills » (Bonnet 2008), which he traces at the same time as the evolution of his relationship with the respondents. While he expresses his regret that the ethnographic studies consulted during his training did not offer him “ guide on the relationship that a researcher should have with their subject during their fieldwork and on how to manage it » (p. 56), the American distills valuable lessons to the reader with parsimony but regularity. The precariousness of the relationship maintained with the privileged informant is thus finely described and questioned on several occasions, as are the risks incurred at the time when the deepening of the investigation requires distancing oneself from him. Numerous passages brilliantly illustrate the “ strategic competence » (Bonnet 2008) of the respondents, who find an interest in the presence of the ethnographer and can attempt to exploit him with more or less success.

Venkatesh also shares the many ethical questions that punctuated his research, particularly when he discovered the legal constraints weighing on the researcher’s shoulders. The description of the difficulties of accessing the land and especially the departure, and the discussion of his chilling impression of having “ tricked » (p. 272) with his respondents also contribute to establishing In the shoes of a gang leader in a remarkable reflective return on ethnographic investigation.

The debt of the researcher: this is not a biography ?

In order to get involved in the life of the local community to which he feels indebted, Venkatesh organizes during his presence in the field a writing workshop for young women in the neighborhood, and volunteers to act as teacher during a teachers’ strike. But it is especially with regard to J.T. that the researcher feels like he has accumulated a considerable debt: flattered that he showed interest in him, the gang leader had in fact accepted his presence at his side largely because he was convinced that he would write his biography. A time very close to him, the author feels “ guilty » (p. 309) because he was never completely frank on this point, even though his investigation allowed him to “ make a name at university » without directly helping J.T. and to the residents of the Robert Taylor Homes, who nevertheless “ learned everything » (p. 309). It therefore does not seem to be an insult to the work to also consider it as the biography long awaited by its privileged informant, as Venkatesh himself seems to suggest at the end of the acknowledgments.

If the reader interested in the organization of gangs and the informal economy of poor neighborhoods of large American cities will do better to directly consult other works which devote themselves to it in a more systematic manner (Jankowski 1991, Bourgois 1995, Venkatesh 2006) , In the shoes of a gang leader brilliantly gives behind-the-scenes access to an ethnography of the ghetto that is now essential, while answering – at least partially – many of the questions that never fail to arise for practitioners of field research.