Phd Thesis: University of Glasgow
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Growing through Gangs: Young People, Identity and Social Change in Glasgow Alistair David Fraser Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Glasgow for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences. University of Glasgow, September 2010 ii Abstract This thesis explores the social meanings and lived realities attached to the phenomenon of youth gangs for children and young people growing up in Langview, a community in the east end of Glasgow, during the early part of the twenty-first century. Drawing on a two- year period of participant-observation, the thesis situates young people’s understandings, experiences, and definitions of gangs in the context of broader social, cultural, and spatial dynamics within the area. In this way, the thesis analyses the complex and differentiated ways in which gang identities are enacted, and explores their intersection with developing age, gender, and group identities. In so doing, the thesis seeks to challenge pathologising stereotypes of youth gangs, drawing on nuanced accounts of gang identities that demonstrate the role of social development and youth transitions in the meanings and motivations of gang involvement. Against representations that construct the gang as an alien other, this thesis argues for an understanding of gangs that is sensitive to the fluidity of, and contradictions in, the formation of all youth identities – of which the gang identity is one. In sum, the thesis argues for the need to move ‘beyond the gang’ in understanding youth violence and territorial identities. iii Contents Abstract..................................................................................................................................................ii Contents ................................................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................vi Author’s declaration................................................................................................................ viii Chapter One: Introduction: Confronting the ‘Glasgow Gang’ Complex........................................1 Methodology and research questions.....................................................................................4 Structure of thesis ..................................................................................................................8 A word on narrative: Fragments from the field ...................................................................11 Chapter Two: Entering the Gang Complex: A Critical Review of Literature..............................13 Introduction..........................................................................................................................14 Gangs in Glasgow................................................................................................................16 Gangs in the United Kingdom .............................................................................................27 Gangs in the United States...................................................................................................35 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................43 Chapter Three: The best laid schemes: Methods, orientations and reflections ............................44 Introduction..........................................................................................................................45 Methodological orientations ................................................................................................46 Reflections on methodological orientations.........................................................................50 Methods ...............................................................................................................................53 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................68 Chapter Four: Thinking beyond the gang complex: .......................................................................69 Introduction..........................................................................................................................70 Gangs and Social Theory.....................................................................................................71 Thinking ‘beyond the gang’: habitus, development, and social change ..............................77 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................92 Chapter Five: The Langview Boys: Group Dynamics, Status, and Masculinities ........................93 Introduction..........................................................................................................................94 Introducing the Langview Boys...........................................................................................96 Group Dynamics, Status, and Masculinities ......................................................................100 Regulating Masculinities: Learning, identity, and the ‘tormented habitus’.......................108 Masculinities and Social Change in Langview..................................................................118 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................121 iv Chapter Six: Growing up in Langview: Space, territory and identity.........................................122 Introduction........................................................................................................................123 Introducing Langview........................................................................................................125 The Langview Boys: Space, territory, and identity ...........................................................131 Langview as lens: globalisation, gentrification, and exclusion..........................................146 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................151 Chapter Seven: Jist fir the buzz: Leisure, edgework, and social change.....................................152 Introduction........................................................................................................................153 Leisure, edgework and social change ................................................................................155 Learning, Leisure, and Langview Youth Project ...............................................................162 ‘Weird ideas’, violence and the Langview Boys ...............................................................167 Leisure and social change in Langview .............................................................................172 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................181 Chapter Eight: Growing through Gangs: Learning, Development, and Identity.......................182 Introduction........................................................................................................................183 Growing into Gang Identities: A Theory...........................................................................185 Gang identity and street habitus.........................................................................................186 Playing ‘gangs’: learning the script ...................................................................................192 Doing ‘gangs’: performing the script.................................................................................196 Talking ‘gangs’: Editing the script ....................................................................................201 Growing through gangs: desistance and persistence..........................................................204 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................209 Chapter Nine: Conclusion: Growing through Gangs....................................................................210 Appendix: Information and Consent Material ..............................................................................222 A1: Fact-sheet: Participant-Observation at Langview Youth Project................................222 A2: Information Poster: Participant-Observation at Langview Youth Project ..................224 A3: Information Letter: Participant-Observation at Langview Youth Project...................225 B1: Glossary ......................................................................................................................241 References..........................................................................................................................................244 v List of tables Table 6.1: Age demographics of Langview, Glasgow and Scotland (2002)……………………..128 Table 6.2: Ethnicity of Population of Langview, Glasgow and Scotland (2002)………………...128 Table 6.3: Social Grade of Working Age Population in Langview, Glasgow and Scotland..…....129 Table 7.1: Participation in leisure activities in 15-19 year-olds, by gender (1967)………………160 Table 7.2: Weekly leisure activities among