Gang glocalization: How the global mediascape creates and shapes local gang realities

This article introduces the concept of ‘gang glocalization’ to capture the processes by whichglobal media myths and conventions create and shape local gang realities. The different stagesof gang glocalization, and the motives to engage in this process, are examined by comparisonof two empirical cases – Congolese gangs in Brussels and Afro-Caribbean gangs in London. Thismulti-sited ethnography finds that youth use fiction and imagination in order to create individualand collective gang identities. Police and political action against gangs is then informed by thesame fiction and imagination, resulting in new gang realities based not on what is real. We findthat mythmaking is an essential aspect of gangs – without the myth there is no gang – and thatimagination is at the core of some of its most harmful activities, namely spectacular symbolicviolence. This is an update on Thrasher’s (1927) old themes. The driving forces behind gangglocalization are emotions and desires tied to lived experiences of social and cultural exclusion.Implications for research and practice follow

Jaar van publicatie:2019