Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- Glossary
- About the author
- Acknowledgements
- Preface: living and working in the social field
- One Introduction
- Two Academic gangland
- Three The game, the stakes, the players: key concepts
- Four House rules, game rules and game strategies
- Five Players, positioning and keeping order
- Six Playing the game: generating and keeping your chips
- Seven Staying in the game – and playing to win
- Eight The game in action: habitus, street capital and territory
- Nine Learning the risks of the game: life in the landscape of risk
- Ten Surviving in the game
- Elven Creating the house advantage: the role of information
- Twelve Playing the queen: gender in the gang
- Thirteen The wheel of fortune: the sanctions repertoire
- Fourteen The street casino
- References
- Appendix A SW9 postcode
- Appendix B Lambeth key crime types
- Appendix C The Duluth Power and Control Wheel
- Appendix D Example of gang evolution and fracturing: organised crime
- Appendix E Approximate gang locations in SW9 (July 2011)
- Appendix F Timeline of known gangs in SW9
- Index
Three - The game, the stakes, the players: key concepts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 March 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- Glossary
- About the author
- Acknowledgements
- Preface: living and working in the social field
- One Introduction
- Two Academic gangland
- Three The game, the stakes, the players: key concepts
- Four House rules, game rules and game strategies
- Five Players, positioning and keeping order
- Six Playing the game: generating and keeping your chips
- Seven Staying in the game – and playing to win
- Eight The game in action: habitus, street capital and territory
- Nine Learning the risks of the game: life in the landscape of risk
- Ten Surviving in the game
- Elven Creating the house advantage: the role of information
- Twelve Playing the queen: gender in the gang
- Thirteen The wheel of fortune: the sanctions repertoire
- Fourteen The street casino
- References
- Appendix A SW9 postcode
- Appendix B Lambeth key crime types
- Appendix C The Duluth Power and Control Wheel
- Appendix D Example of gang evolution and fracturing: organised crime
- Appendix E Approximate gang locations in SW9 (July 2011)
- Appendix F Timeline of known gangs in SW9
- Index
Summary
The magnet may cause the field, but it is the field that has the effects on the iron filings.
Martin, 2003, p 23
In this work, the starting point is the recent rise in serious youth violence in the London Borough of Lambeth and the need to explain why it is happening. In this chapter, I present the formal theory underpinning my study. I identify the factors influencing my approach and the valuable insight gained from using tools developed for domestic violence training and counselling. I continue by illustrating how this insight then led me to consider the gang agenda through the lens of Pierre Bourdieu and the concept of space and social field. I then move on to a formal exposition of field theory as applied to the youth gang and in particular the valuable contribution of his concept of gaming theory. I conclude the chapter by applying field theory to the social field of the gang, establishing my key concepts of street capital and its acquisition through the gang repertoire.
From my professional work in London SW9, it was evident that the violence perpetrated in the name of ‘gang activity’ had several noticeable but contradictory features: it was not random – but appeared to be; it often appeared chaotic, but was in fact targeted; it was increasingly violent – but arose from seemingly minor issues of respect; it had a profound impact on key groups – leaving others relatively untouched; it involved only certain young people – yet others often knew what was going to happen; it occurred in specific locations – yet many denied it was geographically based; individuals concerned changed over time – yet the same issues persisted; girls were reportedly peripheral to activity – yet were clearly central to it; gangs were rivals – yet some members were linked to both; some gangs existed for several years while others dissolved; academic studies claimed an absence of hierarchical gang structures – yet gang affiliates claimed structures existed; local tensions could rise or fall quickly. There was a need to make sense of this confusing and paradoxical picture where violence occurs in different spaces, seemingly random, yet often predictable.
These ‘random/predictable’ patterns of violence evoked scenarios of domestic abuse where violence is a constant threat and women adopt survival techniques for each day and each environment.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Street CasinoSurvival in Violent Street Gangs, pp. 43 - 62Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2014