Project by: Olivia DeTraglia (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: Michel de Konkoly Thege
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Kelly O’Shea

Description of the Project:

I began this project thinking about prison abolition and redesigning the justice system. My focus shifted toward looking at underground economies and the communities that are impacted by them. I read and analyzed the book Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh and created a final product that illustrates the many complex relationships that the gang leader, J.T., has with his community members. I also looked more deeply at the structure of a gang and how they are in fact very similar to the structure of a large business, such as McDonalds. This project is all about looking at parts of society that people tend to dismiss. This project allowed me to look closely at the structure of a gang, and by doing this, I was able to use critical thinking and creativity to look at it in a way that many people don’t usually look at gangs and their activities. Looking at the leader’s relationships with the members of his community also draws on that idea of critical thinking because I looked at the ways the gang does in fact “help” the community or the ways that people in those communities may benefit from the gangs.

Final Product:

Final Reflection on Learning:

Throughout this trimester, I analyzed the characters of the book and their relationships with one another. I looked at how the gang influenced the actions of members in the community and how some members may have actually felt that they benefited from the gang. I then thought about the gang as a business model and assigned the characters (both members of the gang and the community) roles in the business. Doing this allowed me to gain a more intricate depiction of the way that the gang functions and the levels of organization that allow gangs to function in those ways. I also learned more about the relationships between community members and gangs and the ways that both sides benefit from those relationships. Now having finished this project, I learned a lot about how connected these seemingly different issues are and I also now want to focus more on these topics that get so easily discarded and that aren’t really ever talked about.

Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):

During these first few weeks of the trimester, I outlined a plan for my final product and began working on it. For the final product, I will be creating a visual representation of the gang as a business model. It will include both the member of their gangs and their rankings/jobs as well as the community members and others whose lives are impacted by the gang. So far I have taken the characters from the novel and placed them into different categories based on their relationship to the gang and assigned them a job that would correspond to a job in a formal business.

Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):

These past few weeks, I have finished assigning characters their “jobs” and I have begun the final poster. I decided that I would create a multi-layer building that would represent all the levels of the building, from the high-up executives to the people working at the counter. I have begun sketching out the design of the building and figuring out how to make my ideas clearer.

Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):

In the last weeks of the trimester, I have finished up the project and it now looks much different than I initially thought it would. Instead of creating a building, I made two different charts, one representing the relationships of the gang members to the other members of the community and another depicting the gang as a business.

Trimester 1 Update:

Final Reflection on Learning:

Throughout this trimester, I have read and critically thought about the book Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. While doing so I began to think a lot about underground economies, exclusion from formal economies, and the impact that gangs actually have on the communities around them. This trimester I focused mostly on narrowing down my topic from prison abolition to a focus on gangs, gathering knowledge about the topic, and overall just gaining a wider view of all aspects of the topic I am studying. Finishing off this trimester, I have created a plan on how to move forward with this project into trimester 2. I will work mainly during that trimester to design and execute a final project that will be able to clearly explain and demonstrate all of the learning I have done this trimester. I am not fully sure what it will look like yet, but coming up with that is what I will spend the majority of the next trimester doing.

Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):

I began this trimester off by looking at the Prison System in America and thinking about reform. I started off by reading and watching videos about abolition and the ideas behind it. I then moved to look at the people and neighborhoods that are most affected by the criminal justice system and prisons.

Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):

Discussions around those communities affected by the criminal justice system and police interaction in those communities lead me to begin reading Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. The focus of my project shifted from a wide view of prison abolition to an in-depth study of gang behavior by “a rogue sociologist”. Since beginning this book, I have noticed and started to look more closely at the structure of a gang and the similarities between it and say a large business. I have also learned about underground economies and how they stem from an exclusion from the formal economies.

Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):

In the last few weeks of the trimester, I finished reading the book and have started to think about how to share the knowledge I gained from reading it. As I continue this project, I am going to focus on looking at those similarities, the reasons people “decide” to get involved in gangs or end up in gangs, and the impact that these gangs have on their own communities and individuals in those communities.