Doctoral Dissertation Research: Parallel Economies of Youth Socialization in a Chicago Neighborhood

研究生劳伦斯·拉尔夫在约翰·l·科马洛夫博士的指导下，将进行为期12个月的研究，研究芝加哥社区的青少年融入或远离犯罪的社会化问题。讲座的重点是两家不同的音乐制作公司所观察到的说唱话语的平行经济，一个是教唆帮派参与，另一个是鼓励年轻人避免非法的生活方式。研究人员将采用参与式现场观察方法，包括社区居住、访谈、话语分析和计算机辅助文本分析技术。这项研究很重要，因为它将通过探索表征形式与社会实践之间的关系，有助于社会科学理解文化表征的物质效应。这将有助于为内城青年设计更好的社会政策。它还将有助于从一个代表性不足的群体中培养一名社会科学家。

Graduate student Lawrence Ralph, supervised by Dr. John L. Comaroff, will undertake twelve months of research on youth socialization into or away from crime in a Chicago neighborhood. The focus will be on the parallel economies of rap discourse as observed in two different music production companies, one abetting gang participation and the other inspiring youth to avoid an illegal lifestyle. The researcher will use participant observation field methods, including community residence, interviews, discourse analysis, and computer-assisted text analysis techniques.The research is important because it will contribute to social science understanding of the material effects of cultural representations, by exploring the relations between representational forms and social practice. It will help to design better social policy for inner city youth. It also will contribute to the education of a social scientist from an underrepresented group.