Martín Sánchez-Jankowski

Martín Sánchez-Jankowski

Martín Sánchez-Jankowski

Professor
Office
Social Sciences Building 470
Phone
(510) 642-4297
Curriculum Vitae
Research Interests
Sociology of poverty, race and ethnicity, social violence, methodology

Martín Sánchez-Jankowski who has taught at Berkeley since 1984 is  Chair of the Center for Ethnographic Research. He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in political science. His research has focused on inequality in advanced and developing societies with a particular interest in the sociology of poverty, and the sociology of social violence.  He has done field work with gangs, various institutions in poor neighborhoods, schools, and people involved in the illicit underground economy.  He is currently engaged in a ten year study of social change among indigenous peoples in India, the Fiji Islands, and the US. His research has been directed toward understanding the social arrangements and behavior of people living with inequality and poverty. He has published a number of books on these topics including:  City Bound: Urban Life and Political Attitudes Among Chicano Youth (1986); Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society (1991); Inequality By Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth (1996) [co-authored with 4 others]; Cracks in the Pavement: Social Change and Resilience in Poor Neighborhoods (2008); Burning Dislike: Ethnic Violence in Schools (2016); Potholes in the Road: Transition Problems for Low-Income Youth in High School (2022); and co-edited Three books. 

He is in the process of finishing a book that reports the findings regarding participation in the illicit underground economy in U.S. low-income neighborhoods.

Representative Publications

Books

City Bound: Urban Life and Political Attitudes among Chicano Youth City Bound: Urban Life and Political Attitudes among Chicano Youth (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986)

Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991)

Cracks in the Pavement: Social Change and Resilience in Poor Neighborhoods Cracks in the Pavement: Social Change and Resilience in Poor Neighborhoods (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008).

Burning Dislike: Ethnic Violence in High Schools Burning Dislike: Ethnic Violence in High Schools (Oakland: University of California Press, 2016)

 

Potholes in the Road: Transition Problems for Low-Income Youth in High School Potholes in the Road: Transition Problems for Low-Income Youth in High School (Oakland: University of California Press, 2022)