Book
In search of respect: selling crack in El Barrio
Cambridge University Press • Cambridge • Published In 1996 • Pages: xii, 392
By: Bourgois, Philippe I..
Abstract
This work is a study of the experience of poverty, ethnic segregation, and economic marginalization in East Harlem, New York City. Bourgois describes the vast underground economy, ranging from curbside car repairing and baby sitting to unlicensed off-track betting and drug dealing, which provide a source of income for many of East Harlem's inner city inhabitants. Drug dealing, which is a symbol and symptom of the deeper dynamics of social marginalization and alienation, is given particular emphasis in this book. In an attempt to study this aspect of the inner city culture more throughly, the author, accompanied by his wife and child, moved to East Harlem, where he spent hundreds of nights on the streets and in crackhouses in the area observing dealers and addicts in operation. Several of these dealers Bourgois befriended and these served as his primary informants in his study of the drug culture. The data obtained from these informants, used in conjunction with his own field observations, serve as the basis of this study.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2002
- Region
- North America
- Sub Region
- Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
- Document Type
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- John Beierle ; 2000
- Field Date
- March 1985-September 1990
- Coverage Date
- late 1980s - 1994
- Coverage Place
- East Harlem, New York, N.Y., United States
- Notes
- Philippe Bourgois
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 365-378) and index
- LCCN
- 95005929
- LCSH
- Puerto Ricans--United States