Some of you might remember Sudhir Venkatesh as the intrepid (and gutsy) young sociologist featured in the “Why Do Drug Dealers Still Live with Their Moms?” chapter of last year’s hit book Freakonomics. In the passage below, authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner describe one of Venkatesh’s more harrowing experiences out in the field:
Venkatesh, who is a thoughtful, handsome, and well built but not aberrationally brave person, had made his way up to the sixth floor, trying to find someone willing to take his survey. Suddenly, on the stairwell landing, he startled a group of teenagers shooting dice. They turned out to be a gang of junior-level crack dealers who operated out of the building, and they were not happy to see him.
“I’m a student at the University of Chicago,” Venkatesh sputtered, sticking to his survey script, “and I am administering--”
“Fuck you, nigger, what are you doing in our stairwell?”
…
The gang members started arguing over what should be done with Venkatesh.... One jittery kid kept wagging something back and forth in his hands--in the dimming light, Venkatesh eventually realized it was a gun--and muttering, “Let me have him, let me have him.” Venkatesh was very scared.
Not quite the reception every young field researcher dreams of. The story, of course, has a happy ending--Venkatesh wins the gang’s good graces, collects priceless data on the economics of the drug trade, is accepted to Harvard’s prestigious Society of Fellows, meets Steven Leavitt, shares the data, and voila, Leavitt’s got himself a bestseller.
Now Venkatesh is back with a new book that takes readers further into the underground economy of Chicago’s South Side to explore the ways in which its residents struggle to earn enough money to survive. Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor tracks the unregulated, unreported economic activity--both legal and illegal--that keeps inhabitants afloat in the unforgiving ghettos of America’s cities.
Off the Books functions as both a chronicle of life in the ghetto and a critique of the social conditions that make illegal activity a necessary condition for survival in such places. Off the Books is currently scheduled for publication in October, but a recent interview we did with Venkatesh should give you a little more insight into where he is coming from.
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