Going Native (SumBlog11)

The only way to truly understand a culture is to get immersed in it. It is easy to make outside judgements on a group based off of what we simply observe, but that's not necessarily fair. To truly understand what is happening in a group, we need to get on the inside and get involved. Dorothy Smith stood behind this idea completely. Through her standpoint theory, she argued that it is impossible for a person to be completely objective and think that they are not connected in any way to the people they're studying. We will always have an innate human bond with people, and it's important that we recognize that and take advantage of that. We are able to discover society from within, and rediscover it from within time and again. This type of sociology is in-depth and intensive. However, it is possible that someone gets too involved in their research, to the point where they become part of the group. This is called "going native". 

For six years, Patti Adler immersed herself into a community of Southern California wholesale illicit drug dealers. She got into the community and got to know several of the dealers on a personal level. Through her work, she was able to get a better understanding of the drug world and how it worked. She then wrote the book "Wheeling and Dealing" about her experiences and the people that she met. It can be a hard kind of research to do, because falling into "going native"  is easier than one would think. But Patti Adler was able to do this research and report on it, and not get lost in the community.It's a fascinating look into a world unknown to most of us. Without getting immersed into that community, her research wouldn't have been as in depth or complete.