[GST]≡ Download Free Off the Books The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh 9780674023550 Books

Off the Books The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh 9780674023550 Books

Download As PDF : Off the Books The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh 9780674023550 Books

Off the Books The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh 9780674023550 Books

This is a great book.
I think the name does it a disservice; potential readers might think its going to be a catalogue of under the counter ways of making money and probably boring.

What the book does is show how people manage to live amidst poverty, lack of job opportunities, discrimination, neglect, and abuse. It shows how people in "shady" ways of making a living exist along side the more law abiding. Indeed, the author does a great job of demonstrating how there is a blurring of lines, that there is a lot of overlap.

Far from being boring, reading this book made me feel immersed in life with real people making the best life they could. There are a lot of good people in these pages; inventive, creative, people who can care about others even as they struggle against hard circumstances.

This book left me with a lot of understanding about a world usually pitied and/or slandered by the media Also left me with questions; e.g. do you have to be poor to be humane?


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Off the Books The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh 9780674023550 Books Reviews

Arrived in good condition
An account of the years the author spent in Chicago. He discusses how the ghettos got to be where they are, who is co-opted in the crime and/or under the table economy (about everyone). What can be done about it? I did not find an answer to that question, but did see the complexity.
Venkatesh has masterfully produced what is both effective and persuasive in his work “Off the Books The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor.” It is effective in that he captures the essence of a plighted people and place, and persuasive because some kind of personal change will be experienced in the range of time before the book is read to after it is finished. He shows that there is good, there is bad, and there is ugly existing in Maquis Park, just like every other neighborhood across the United States. In this way, Venkatesh indicate a contradiction throughout the book, which is how this Chicago neighborhood is both its own separate entity unlike any other, as well as a place not much different than certain areas of urban poor and that mirrors those in existence across the nation. Without any available opposition, the argument is that he has accomplished what he intended an insightful overview and persuasive analyzed study of an impoverished Chicago underground neighborhood that operates by its own rules and yields its own particular series of events.

One can certainly appreciate Venkatesh’s objectiveness, a key element in writing a piece such as his. He does not take us into this hush world to prove its existence of right or wrong, just as he does not claim its innocence nor deny the evident corruption. As a whole, this book does exactly what you want it to. It does not aimlessly give countless personal accounts like one may blindly prepare for, it instead correctly uses firsthand information to augment support for its arguments. It stays on focus and then brings in the scholarly analysis when necessary. It also awakens one, if he or she is not already awoken, to the world of social stratification. The people who live in Maquis Park do not immigrate there, they are born into it without a choice or desire. For those who wish to move out to go on and have a better life, most cannot afford to and so they do not exit from the community. It seems obvious enough that it should not be said, but the ghetto is—as we have learned—a place unlike most that subsists on its own set of means. If one should learn anything from this book it is an understanding that neighborhoods similar to Maquis Park exist the only way that they know—through undying methods and techniques of the shady world. If we are to mend these depleted neighborhoods in restoration, we will not be successful simply by halting these affairs. Instead of being reactive we must be proactive with regards to fighting such a battle, and this means implementing policy that targets the root of the problem, not just the effects. Like pulling a weed from a garden, it cannot be picked from the top or it will continue growing. It is more difficult, but it must be extracted completely from the root.

In regards to audience appreciation I would recommend this to my Sociology friends, but not my regular friends. This is specific subject matter with great depth of research and discovery. It illustrates what is problematic, and it certainly is not uplifting, though it may generate inspiration. Lovers or members of sociology and its realm, I think most of all, would appreciate this work for its quality, regardless of minor personal disfavors.
It is very revealing. I never realized so many small businesses were off the books. It makes you think about why these businesses don't pay taxes. It is not good for the country. However, the government makes it too complicated to start a small business legally. Many can't afford to work any other way.
This is a really interesting book that could be nice to read with Gang Leader for a Day, as the latter also discusses the underground economy, though not in such depth. I think this would be good as a supplemental book in an intro to sociology, marriage and family, or social problems class.
This is a great book. really presents reality on the ground level of life, If the Elites only spent a week living by the laws and rules of the underground economy, the world would change in a heart beat to the world of the "Golden Rule" never mind the different religions in this world, it is about life all life and the respect that this universe was set up to establish. It takes a strong stomach to read this, BUt is worth every word.
well written and engaging. i took one star off for two reasons i seldom give anything the "A+," which cheapens the superlative and only adds to the "we're all winners" mindset (which I cannot abide) and because it presented none of the actual data which i expected. perhaps this second point is my own fault for expecting what the book was not, but i would have liked to see more by way of analysis and less by way of narrative and anecdote. on balance, this is a book which anyone with even a passing interest in the subject should read time very well spent!
This is a great book.
I think the name does it a disservice; potential readers might think its going to be a catalogue of under the counter ways of making money and probably boring.

What the book does is show how people manage to live amidst poverty, lack of job opportunities, discrimination, neglect, and abuse. It shows how people in "shady" ways of making a living exist along side the more law abiding. Indeed, the author does a great job of demonstrating how there is a blurring of lines, that there is a lot of overlap.

Far from being boring, reading this book made me feel immersed in life with real people making the best life they could. There are a lot of good people in these pages; inventive, creative, people who can care about others even as they struggle against hard circumstances.

This book left me with a lot of understanding about a world usually pitied and/or slandered by the media Also left me with questions; e.g. do you have to be poor to be humane?