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Approaches to the study of sociology
Sociology Research Method
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Approaches to the study of sociology
Sociology Research Method
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Elijah Anderson spent much of his career doing ethnographic studies in the poor, inner-city communities of Philadelphia. From his field research, he came to believe that people, especially young black men who lived in the most economically depressed, drug-infested, and crime-ridden sections of the city, had to contend with weakened rules of civil law. In the place of the usual civil laws governing people’s behavior evolved a “code of the street” (Anderson, 1999, p. 9). Anderson argues that at the core of this code is a set of informal rules organized around a search for respect that governs public social
In Down These Mean Streets, Piri Thomas informs the reader about the challenges his family had to overcome in Harlem, New York. Four siblings, a mother, and father all cramped up in an apartment with no proper heating, with drug addicts as neighbors, and an unsafe environment out in the streets which required constant police patrol. Thomas narrated a time during the early 1940s when he ran away from home at the age of 12. He observed a policeman ignore his situation for the sole reason as Thomas mentioned, “After all, a twelve-year-old kid walking the streets at 3 a.m. was a nothing sight in Harlem” (Thomas 6). In other words, the living environment in Harlem had to be so dangerous that seeing a kid in the streets at night was a gift for police
Many of the boys pretended that negative interactions and stereotyping did not affect them, but their bravo personas only masked the fear inside. Fear made the boys feel weaker and less masculine, so they would deviate from social norms to regain respect and dignity among their peers and for themselves. Routine patterns of punishment eventually lead the boys to develop an altered view of thoughts, beliefs, and ways of behaving in order to survive the tough life set them. Chapter two concentrates on the history of Oakland, incarceration rates, youth systems of control, and the boy’s resistance to punishment and brutalization. The Oakland ghetto consists of a multiracial community, predominantly African-American and Latino, that are equally targeted and brutalized by police
At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance- a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle L. McGuire, does not sound at first like a book that would provide ample information about the role of the Ku Klux Klan in the Civil Rights Era, but through the various cases and demonstrations presented by McGuire, the reader is given insight into the Ku Klux Klan that has yet to presented by another author read for this study. In her book, McGuire analyzes various court cases and movements from the early 20th century into the 1970s to show the growth of the civil rights movement through black women's resistance. She focuses on the particular women involved and the role that respectability
Now throughout the duration of reading Anderson’s story of the inner-city in Philadelphia, one can learn and think a lot through the journey. Reading this book made me feel like I was actually visiting the city or walking through each street that was being explained about. Each different aspect of life, such as, school, family, crime or even relationships made me contrast the different lifestyles they had compared to the lifestyle that I associate with. Even the explanation of the code’s regulation through the way of talking, dress style, behavior or simple etiquette of eye contact specified enough detail, that it was easy enough to easily picture or imagine. It was thought-provoking to read about how Anderson was able to uncover the confrontations
In article 22, “The Code of the Streets, Anderson expresses how these people have to fit in. For example, the author states, “On the street, among males these concerns about things and identity have come to be expressed in the concept of manhood” (Anderson, 181). In this article, it shows that men have to go through these identity crises when they are teenagers. They are figuring out who they are and some are put in situations that they should not be.
There comes a time in everyone's life where an individual has to weed out the positive and negative consequences of each action. With that, each of these individuals go about surviving this thing called life in various ways. With the increasing fluctuation of real life situations, these individuals reflect their actions by reacting and abiding by Elijah Anderson's (1999) Code of the Street. In Elijah Anderson's (1999) book Code of the Street, examples of different individuals and their specific situations are addressed and closely analyzed. In this paper, I will elaborate and further explain Anderson's Code of the Street.
The hood is by all accounts ethically rotted, as it needs good examples to be duplicated by the adolescents and because the economy only supports a minute fraction of individuals in the hood. With the movement of the architects of enlistments to regulate; leaving the young people unproductive within the inner city, to comparing the working class and the lower class males to the males are involved in insubordinate acts. Another variable is disappointment and frustration that drives the youth to adapt to the streets. The families of the slums were portrayed to be conventional with great qualities, while the street families barred themselves from the more noteworthy society. Apart from the two sorts of families being particular they enormously relate and interact in the city, the schools, and other public places (Anderson
In No Way Out, Waverly Duck examines an urban neighborhood referred to as Bristol Hill, where the drug trade is prevalent among the residents. Duck challenges the popular misconception that these communities characterized by the drug trade, crime, and violence are tumultuous areas with no social order. Duck argues that the residents of this community have created an interaction order that is a complex social organization that allows for survival in such dangerous conditions. For seven years, Duck lived on Lyford Street in Bristol Hill, and his theory is built on his personal experiences and information gathered from residents in this community. Through residents’ personal narratives of their experiences and detailed observations, Duck validates his theory and shows how social order exists in these communities.
Cities can be bustling centers of opportunities; however, they can tear apart a person’s hopes and dreams. Writer, Ann Petry, in her novel, The Street, depicts a woman, Lutie Johnson, trying to find a place to rent out, but struggles due to the impenetrable city winds. Her purpose is to showcase how certain individuals have the ability to fight the barriers in their ruthless environment in order to succeed. Through the use of imagery, personification, and selection of detail, Petry depicts how Lutie Johnson tries to adapt to the harsh conditions of the city. Petry begins the selection by depicting the winds as an intrusive force.
The code of the street can be used to explain differences in crime rates between adjacent neighborhoods. Stewart & Simons (2010), conversed the difficulties of inner-city life for citizens in structurally deprived vicinities. He painted the physical and ethnic influences leading to violence. Anderson (1999) argued that the extraordinary rates of poverty, unemployment, violence, cultural discernment, isolation, distrust of police, and hopelessness that portray many underprivileged settings have led to a neighborhood street
Another popularly stigmatized issue within the Chicanx community is the issue of gang injunctions. In Ana Muniz’s book, Police, Power, and the Production of Racial Boundaries, she highlights the injustices against the Chicano community done by their fellow neighbors and the community police because their culture is often a nuisance to other residents. Muniz uses the city Cadillac-Corning as her prime example to look at the gang injunction model. She states that, “the gang injunction model is being used to police political behavior as well as “criminal deviance” done by the Chicanos of the community” (Muniz 34). The problem within the community, to the other residents, is the violent behavior and threat to themselves, so they want to implement
Kallen Narrative Essay Criminal- The Marshal Mathers LP- Eminem Darkness. It has been 11 hours since he’s seen caught a glimpse of sunlight, or any light for that matter. ‘I shouldn’t be here’ he mutters to himself quietly. Lloyd Mathews begins to retrace his steps, recreating every choice that he made which landed him in this situation.
Tally’s Corner is the sociological interpretation of the culture of Negro streetcorner men. Elliot Liebow sets out to expose the hypocrisies that lead black men in this circumstance. The study is carried out in Washington D.C. The key argument posed by Liebow is that black males are incapable of attaining jobs because they lack education. He also argues that this is a cycle that inevitably results in a trans-generational marginalization of the black race.
Troy Wiggins article “Letter to my City” is an emotional reflection of his experiences of living life in the city of Memphis. With Memphis being well-known for its crime rate history and overall concerning representations of Black communities, Wiggins narration provides the negatives of being involved with Memphis in general. His use of pathos, organization, and diction and imagery allows Wiggins to demonstrate a Black man’s perspective on facing racism, lack of overall safety, and hypocrisy of Memphis’ quality of living. Wiggins argument is heavily based on his opinions and his use of his personal experiences drives his points further.