Critical Review: with No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets by Marni Finkelstein

In this critical review of Marni Finkelsteins descriptive anthropology With No Direction Home Homeless Y bring come to the foreh on the thoroughfare and in the Streets I will analyze and evaluate some of the strategies and methods use by this author. One primary issue I will question is the take in existence. Finkelstein whitethorn extradite set the population limitations to strictly for this ethnography. Her express mail observation location and time is also a major issue. She chose to direct a transient population that, very likely, primarily comes step up at night. Yet, she limited herself to whizz primary location and she only went there in the daytime.I will discuss the lack of follow up to the somebody interviews as well. While she disc everywhereed some fascinating information shamive this sub finish, she did non find what she stated she initi eithery set out to find. Finkelsteins goal was to necessitate gutterpunks (Finkelstein, 2005), but what she actually st udied were the substance abusing stateless younkerfulness of Tompkins Square Park. In her original hypothesis she wanted to view about alternative younker subcultures, especially those revolving somewhat music (Finkelstein, 2005).She does not seem to harbor accomplished this goal. There was little talk about music in the ethnography, on her part or the part of the boors. Was it because she name that there was no relation to music or because she did not specifically try to find youth involved with the music. It seems like she basically settled for scarcely plain old homeless drug addict and sousing kids, which would be great if her goal was not more specific to decision gutterpunks. The ethnography is also habitationd on an extremely small sample size.According to Finkelsteins own numbers, she only interviewed 50 youth over the period of the two summers. That seems like an extremely low number of histrions for which to base an entire ethnography. I would think that over a period of two summers- lets call that 6 months- a researcher would deport the opportunity to encounter hundreds of potential candidates to provide informational interviews. Part of the trouble may have been that she limited her participants mount ups to be between 15-20 years old.I suppose that this restriction left out a great deal of potentially vital informants and information. It may have substantially limited her population size. For example, the 25 year old, named Scratch, who had been on the bridle-paths for 10+ years, would have been a cornucopia of information. But, all she did was use him to refer her to other kids in her requisite age group. The street culture in Tompkins Square Park did not have age limitations. Im not sure that Finkelstein should have either.Its Copernican to note that all of the kids involved were heavily dependent on drugs and alcohol. likewise important to note, is that she was paying her participants. This combination may have created unintended consequences. Its realistic that the kids were willing to tell vivid and imaginative stories to Finkelstein in hopes of being interviewed again and, thereby, being paid again. Many of the youth were willing to take to prostitution in order to earn money for drugs or alcohol. Is it possible that they would prostitute lies about their own lives for the same end?Is it possible that they neer sincerely left New York? Did they just move into shelters in the pass? Its impossible to know for sure. These kids are caught up in the culture of lies and delusion surrounding drugs that is to say, who says they arent just verbally fantasizing with Finkelstein and passing it mop up as the truth. The location limitation was also unfavorable for this kind of ethnography. If one is going to write ethnography about a transient population, they should campaign somewhat transient themselves.Traveling with the youth would necessarily be required in order to make out a full picture of their culture. The stories from the kids may have been accurate and detailed, or they may have been fabricated, but, either way, it is not the same as having experienced it personally. In order to fully check and appreciate a subsistence strategy, one must subsist from it, if only for a brief period. She might have considered a more interactive participant observation model to more fully experience their culture. Finkelstein should have departed out into the park when more kids were out and about.She mentioned that she only when out in the daylight, I would try to get to the field site early ahead the kids were either too drunk to be interviewed or completely passed out in the grass (Finkelstein, 2005). Because these kids are alcoholics and drug addicts, it is very likely that more of their life takes place after sundown and in the first place sun up. I imagine that they have quite a tolerance and are comparatively functional for much of the early part of the evening. Drugs a nd alcohol were a major part of the kids lives (Finkelstein, 2005).I can certainly appreciate her concern for personal safety, but if th is is the population she wanted to study she might have made more of an effort to be around when the activities were in full swing. She only mentioned being at one society in the book. I have to believe that there were countless analogous activities during her research, of which she was not a part. I have gathered from the ethnography that Finkelstein interviewed from each one kid only once. From that interview, she sprinkled quotes throughout the book. She mentions a few times in the book that she would interview kids and then never see them again.For accuracy purposes, and to get an idea of the level of honesty from her informants she should have conducted multiple interviews with the same kids. This would have been more likely if she was willing to spend more time in their natural habitat. Follow up on the interviews with the youth should ha ve been done. lecture with the family or schools of the kids would have added much needed detail to the ethnography. Since she was paying the kids, peradventure she could have paid more for verifiable information about their antecedent mainstream lives.Then followed up on the information provided and reported her results. It would have been adequate to have a section on what their families and teachers said about how the kids were before their lives on the street. Perhaps, verifying or debunking some of the information the kids told her. Its not only important that the kids are on the street, but why. What lead them there and are the youth truthful overall? It would have been arouse if Finkelstein could have interviewed ex-Tomkins Square Park kids for her book. Do they ever get out?Do they move on to other arenas for homelessness as they age? Clearly, in Chapter 9, the kids have plans for the future. Its also clear that their plans are of then just a officed illusion. They don t currently have the meaning or the wherewithal to accomplish the goals theyve set out. The kids, like Jeff and Joyce, clearly have plans to demoralize land, but no real idea of the amount of money it requires. I am sure there are people that did grow up and out of this subculture. I would like to have heard from them on how they got out and what became of their lives.I cant say that have the answer on how to find them either, but it would have been enkindle. Finkelstein did make macro conclusions from individual or micro level research. But she does come up with some interesting information about the small group of Tompkins Square Park youth she interviewed. This should not be disregarded, as homeless youth often are. It was tenderness opening to pear into this culture and community. The homeless kids often had a universal bond because of prior abuse. (Finkelstein, 2005) They also bonded out of share needs.Whether those needs be drugs, alcohol, or food, they were willing to s hare with those they knew were in the same situation. When they would panhandle they would kitty their money with other youth. If one got some food, he or she would share it with another who was nearby. This happened specifically when Finkelstein bought some pizza for a youth named Tommy. Although he was starving himself, he effortfully walked across the street to give half of it to a girl who was panhandling. Tommy did not know the girl he just knew they shared the common bond of being homeless.The Tompkins Square Park youth considered themselves isolated from mainstream culture. Yet, they required it for survival. If they were truly apart(predicate) from society they would have been growing or hunting for food. They would have belonged from place to place on foot. That alone did not happen. Wasting of food by mainstream society allowed them the opportunity to dumpster nosedive for food. Caring people would sometimes buy them food. Modern modes of transportation allowed them t o act around the country in quick fashion. The kids panhandled and begged for money.They participated in this ethnography because they were acquire paid to do it. While the youth would like to consider themselves apart from mainstream, the reality is that they are just one part of it. What one has to hold on in mind always, is that these are not highly idealistic youth as much as they are kids caught in the fog of drug and alcohol addictions. From the drugs and alcohol came the extreme level of force-out. These youth walked around with weapons, normally a knife or things called smileys. The smiley would be made from a round chain which sometimes had lock on it too.This weapon appears to have the strength of causing some pretty disfiguring injuries. These kids have no qualms about deploying these weapons. In fact it seems to be a regular event. This level of unreported violence is definitely one area where they keeping themselves separate from mainstream society. The question for me is ar they reverting to more primitive behaviors because of the lack of civilized structure or is the alcohol and drug use the main problem. Finkelsteins ethnography is a remarkable piece of anthropological work. It s also possible to gain vigor from some of her mistakes. She states that her objective is to study the relationship between music and this subculture of kids on the street. She never makes any further reference to that issue. How did the music play a part in this culture? She stated that the size of the street kid population is substantial, approximately 100 million worldwide, but she only had 50 youths in her study. She interviewed them only once without and any follow up with the youth themselves or their families, school, or other organizations.Furthermore, she studied a transient population from one single location, primarily Tompkins Square Park. It would seem appropriate to have traveled with this population to get a real sense of their culture. Did they a ct in California as they acted in New York? Did they really travel at all? A main concern is that this work is base on personal stories from youth who are deluded by drugs and alcohol. There is no real verification of the facts presented. From these personal stories Finkelstein makes claims about all homeless youth, when she should really just be discussing Tompkins Square Park youths.