The book Freakonomics is by far my favorite book of all time and for those of you who have read it you would know that the Stephen's (as I like to call them) have a friend by the name of Sudhir Venkatesh, a professor at Columbia University. A trained sociologist, Sudhir lived in the Robert Taylor projects in Chicago to document how poor people lived.
This is an area where many researchers have failed since these areas are usually too dangerous to outsiders, and many studies are performed from the outside looking in using theories to fill in the gaps.
Sudhir, on the other hand, actually lived with people and temporarily became part of a gang for 6 years. While the chapter in Freakonomics gives excellent detail of his findings from an Economics point of view, Sudhir's book "Gang Leader for a Day" gives a lot more detail into his every day life in the projects. Since I have yet to read this book I can't honestly say go out and get it, based on the fact that I have only seen the cover. However, you have read the chapter in Freakonomics like I have then you already know this is a must read.
Below is a clip from his visit to the Colbert Report. ~Enjoy
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