Righteous Dopefiend

Bourgois and Schonberg build their theoretical model on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of symbolic violence and habitus. How do these concepts complicate our understanding of the lives of interlocutors? What are potential unintended consequences of viewing their lives through this lens?

How does the globalization connect to the interpersonal violence enacted on Edgewater Boulevard residents? Consider the book’s four layers of violence: interpersonal, community, societal, and paradigm.

What biases and potential blind spots might the authors have brought with them to their work? How did their identities impact their work in the field, and what impacts may not have been explicitly discussed in the book?