Sociology Professor Sudhir Venkatesh Used Deception in His Ethnography of Drug

question 51

Essay

Sociology professor Sudhir Venkatesh used deception in his ethnography of drug dealers (Gang Leader for a Day,2008).Why did he use deception? Why did some scholars think such deception was unethical? If you were Venkatesh,would you have used deception in the same way? Why or why not?

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Definitions:

Neural Plate

Region of the dorsal surface of the embryo that is transformed into the neural tube and neural crest.

Primitive Streak

An early structure that forms in the developing embryo, crucial for the process of gastrulation and establishing the body plan of the organism.

Notochord

Small rod of tissue lying ventral to the neural tube. A characteristic of all vertebrates, in humans it becomes the nucleus pulposus of the intervertebral disks.

Somites

Blocks of mesodermal cells located on either side of the neural tube in the developing embryo, which will differentiate into the vertebrae, rib cage, and associated musculature.