Advantages And Disadvantages Of Sidewalk Sleeping

Ethnography is a study used by sociologists to emerge within a group and observe how they operate. Within Sidewalk Gotta Go and Sidewalk Sleeping, Duneier is able to see what is unseen by the average tourist in New York City. Although he had submerged himself with this a group of street vendors on Sixth Avenue, there are advantages and disadvantages to an ethnographical study. Mitchell Duneier was able to work with the street vendors and learn why they had chosen to sleep outside, or why they chose to urinate in public instead of the bathroom. Many tourists within the city do not notice the unseen things, because they are too busy looking at scenery. Whereas the urban resident is used to the scenery, and can bypass homeless people as they …show more content…
The researcher is able to be welcomed within the group, and the participants know they are being studied for sociological research. An ethnographic study has advantages because it is able to learn the real behavior of the people. The subjects begin to act as their normal daily lives when they have gotten used to the researcher being within their group. These studies take a long process to complete, which makes the bond between the subjects and the researcher. Each subject was able to specify why and where they urinate in the city. Raj, the newsstand worker had stated that, “when he can’t get away from the newsstand, he makes it in a cup,” unlike Mudrick, Raj feels embarrassed of what people see of him (Duneier, …show more content…
An outsider looking in on a situation can be very different than joining the group and learning about them. An outside perspective of these men living on the streets and urinating in public could be that if they look grungy, then they are trouble. The homeless men in the street that urinate in public could face trouble with law enforcement because of policies in place. It is illegal to urinate in public, therefore, if a policeman arrests one of the men in the study; it could disrupt Duneier’s progress. Although an ethnographic study has advantages, it also has disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is because of the length of the study, the researcher may have a bias by getting to know these people on a different level. The length of the study also increases more work for the researcher to be able to get a final product. Another disadvantage is that, although he is studying the street vendor group, he is not able to focus on the other homeless groups within the