With No Direction Home Summary

“With No Direction Home: Homeless Youth on the Road and in the Streets.” focuses on the life and culture of homeless youth in New York City, especially Tompkins Square Park. The book uses ethnographic research to study the elusive lifestyle of “street kids.” The book examines the lives of the kids before and after they move onto the streets.According to Kottak, “ Anthropology explores human diversity across time and space, seeking to understand as much as possible about the human condition.” This study does that in spades. The study uses a form of observation called ethnography. Ethnography is the study of a certain culture based on observation. This observation includes casual interaction and attempting to see the world through the perspective of the people being studied. For the study, the researcher monitored the community of street kids in Tompkins Square Park. They used “key informants” to assist them with this. These informants were people who were apart of or close to the group. The informants would first become close to the researcher and provide them with information and help them gain access to the community. The informants would eventually introduce the researcher to the kids and let them know that the …show more content…
People, New Yorkers especially, will see these children on the street and have no clue about their lives. There are many assumptions that are attached to being a homeless youth. Many people will look at them through a blurred lens of stereotypes and perceived notions. Homeless youth are often seen as the bottom of the barrel. Homeless adults will sometimes receive more understanding because it may seem as if they have nowhere to turn. But with homeless youth, the assumption is that they all have loving families to go back to and that they have no reason to be where they are. This view often makes those who are not acquainted with this culture see these kids as