ANALYSIS OF ETHNOGRAPHY

Analysis of Ethnography

Analysis of Ethnography

Published in 1995, Philippe Bourgois's path breaking book In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio is still timely, given that it focuses on the destructive impact of major economic transitions in North America that are still taking place at the start of this new millennium, including alarmingly high levels of unemployment plaguing metropolitan neighborhoods. In Search of Respect also continues to assist criminologists in their ongoing attempts to develop a rich theoretical understanding of how structural determinants, such as transnational corporations moving operations to developing countries, help create criminal youth subcultures and gangs in disenfranchised inner-city communities. In addition to being theoretically important, Bourgois's book includes in-depth ethnographic data derived from 5 years spent in East Harlem (also referred to as El Barrio) observing, tape recording, and photographing various components of the lives of roughly 24 Puerto Rican crack dealers.

In some ways, Bourgois's work resembles that of Oscar Lewis's mid-1960s research. For example, both scholars are anthropologists and both have done ethnographic research in El Barrio. However, they offer fundamentally different interpretations of the sources of poverty there and the myriad of social problems related to this highly injurious symptom of structured social inequality. Based on life-history data provided by one extended Puerto Rican family, Lewis offered the culture of poverty theory, which contends that middle-class and lower-class values are distinct. Instead of addressing how broader political, economic, and cultural forces are related to social and economic exclusion, Lewis—as well as more contemporary culture-of-poverty theorists—argue that the poor are poor because, unlike middle-class people, they lack the moral fiber and discipline to earn an education, to get jobs, to defer gratification, and so on.

On the other hand, Bourgois's account asserts that macro-level factors such as the following have fueled the emergence of Puerto ...