YOUGANG

Gangs policies: youth and migration in local contexts

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The project intends to study the development of policies relating to gangs by using the Spanish experience as a case study. Over the last few years a rising interest in gang has emerged as a consequence of the French banlieue explosion and other violent events concerning, mainly but not only, young migrants and second generations all over Europe. These phenomena generated a huge flow of media stories resulting in moral panic and stigmatization processes against vulnerable subjects, as well as public interventions at local and national level. The project aims to investigate local policies - that have moved from a social exclusionary approach to a social integrationist one – with a focus on its successes and limitations. The social integrationist approach attempts to: a) reduce inter and intra-group violence; b) foster internal democratic leaderships; c) support gender empowerment inside groups; d) translate group practices of self help and sociality into formal youth association; e) support member integration within society by encouraging public recognition of their cultural practices. In this respect stakeholders (local administrators, gang leaders, media opinion leaders, social workers, police officers, ..) play a decisive role in determining the quality of outcomes. The project will use a qualitative and ethnographic methodology, based on interviews and observational data, focusing mainly on stake-holders perspectives and practices. A set of specific interviews with female gang leaders will allow to analyse the impact of policies in gender relations within gangs. Focus groups, blog and visual sociology will be applied to promote stakeholders’ reflexivity and to increase dissemination of the project’s findings. A panel of international experts will contribute by: putting the Spanish case in a European and more global perspective; assessing achieved results; theorizing an alternative approach to gangs; supporting best practices and guidelines formulation.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Networking and training prove to be an alternative approach to gang policies, ultimately reducing violent crime and expanding social inclusion.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Violent events across Europe involving young migrants and second-generation immigrants have raised a growing concern about gangs in recent years. Consequently, an influx of media stories has increased moral panic and stigmatisation.

The EU-funded 'Gangs policies: Youth and migration in local contexts' (http://www.yougangproject.com/ (YOUGANG)) project explored local policies and national policies as they have changed from being socially exclusive to socially integrating. The focus is both on successes and limitations with the ultimate aim of finding manageable solutions.

Using the Spanish experience as a case study, the development of policies relating to gangs over the past 10 years was examined. In particular, the focus was on the cities of Barcelona and Madrid.

Since 2006 gangs in Barcelona have been transformed into youth cultural associations registered by the Government of Catalonia. The ultimate aim was to reduce violence. By contrast, in Madrid, the same groups were considered illegal and met with zero tolerance.

With the economic crisis, inclusion policies towards gangs came to a standstill. A change in resources and priorities of policymakers has largely contributed to an increase in youth violence on the street in the past couple of years.

Findings indicate that if the eradication of gangs is to be successful, they need to be examined from the viewpoint of youth cultures. Polices that reduce harm give way to reducing the negative consequences of particular behaviours. Operating as social spaces of inclusion and opportunities, gangs are an alternative to social exclusion of certain youth. This indicates that public policies need to point towards access of alternative resources.

Policymakers and local administrators will find the project results useful and relevant, to be applied at both the local and national level. This could be a step leading to rethinking gang and youth policies.