Marni Finkelstein in With No Direction Home - 1607 Words

The ethnography With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets by Marni Finkelstein, describes the life of street youth in New York City. The ethnography attempts to debunk myths that prior studies have formed of these street youths. The author, Marni Finkelstein is an Anthropologist renowned for her work on urban populations at risk. She graduated from the New School of Social Research in New York City with her PhD in Anthropology. Finkelstein has also conducted studies on substance abuse, sexual assaults and drug use of youths in New York City. Finkelstein achieves her goals, by using a scientific approach when observing the street youths. A few methods she utilizes are similar to that have been previous used but†¦show more content†¦In order to obtain accurate results, Finkelstein interviews 50 street youths from East Village of New York City. Furthermore, the number of males and females interviewed were almost proportionally equal, as there were 26 males and 24 females. She then also records the age these youths left home, in order to decide if there are any correlations between the age the youth left home and the number of youths that left home (2005, 15). The author applies cultural and moral relativism throughout her entire case study. She states that she did not prepare a fixed set of questions; rather she allowed the youths to generate the questions based on their interaction with her (2005,11). Finkelstein demonstrates her prowess by interchanging when she conducts interviews and when she solely observes the behavior of the youths. The ethnographic methods used by Finkelstein are similar to those employed by Marcelo Diversi, the author of Street Kids in Nikes: In Search of Humanization through the Culture of Consumption. Diversi’s ethnography focuses on street youths in Brazil and the impact that American pop culture has on them (Diversi, 2006). Even though, both Finkelstein’s and Diversi’s ethnogra phies focus on two separate issues, the means of their research contain glaring similarities. Both Diversi and Finkelstein utilize participant observation and they interview the street youths. Moreover they both choose to not live amongst the street youths;Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of With No Direction Home By Marni Finkelstein1133 Words   |  5 Pages The ethnography in â€Å"With No Direction Home† by Marni Finkelstein was quite astounding. The group Finkelstein studied were street kids no older than the age of 20. Finkelstein did not interview kids over 20 because he said kids under the age of 21 rely on their families for social and financial support. He studied kids under 20 because those groups are most vulnerable to the lack of familial support and wanted to determine whether it will affect their self behaviour. These interviews and observationsRead MoreAnalysis Of Marni Finkelstein s With No Direction Home 1394 Words   |  6 PagesThe book â€Å"With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets† written by Marni Finkelstein refers to the homeless youth. This book describes the lifestyle of the teenagers with no home and explains with detail about what consist in their everyday lives in the streets of New York City. The purpose of this book is to explain to people who these kids are and t o see life in their point of view. It explains the difference between street kids and the kids that live on the street. WeRead MoreCritical Review: with No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets by Marni Finkelstein1959 Words   |  8 PagesCritical Review: With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets By Marni Finkelstein In this critical review of Marni Finkelstein’s ethnography â€Å"With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets† I will analyze and evaluate some of the strategies and methods used by this author. One primary issue I will discuss is the sample population. Finkelstein may have set the population limitations to strictly for this ethnography. Her limited observationRead MoreEthnographic Methods Utilized By Finkelstein In With No Direction Home 1657 Words   |  7 PagesWith No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets is an ethnography which describes the lives of youths living on the streets of New York City. The author attempts to conduct her own research in order to dispute the false impressions that many previous researches have formed about the youths living on the street. The ethnographic method she uses aids her study of the â€Å"street kids† in acknowledging the facts behind their choice of lifestyle and their experiences while on the street