PART 1.
1.What was one of the most important findings in Neither War nor Peace?
2.Explain the classic Chicago School ideas on gangs (Park and Thrasher). Is it applicable to today’s fast pace of urbanization? What is the meaning of the formula: migration + city+ poverty + slums + discrimination + youth = gangs.
3. Explain “institutionalization of gangs”? How is religious fervor similar to joining a gang? pages (7-8) on the book, not the color paint
4.
What are institutions how come they can’t be destroyed? How do they create myths?
5. How is the history of gangs (leaders) mythologized and passed down? How are gangs associated with social movements in Chicago, Rio and Cape Town?
6. How are prison related to gangs? Why did the Black Panthers and Young Lords fall apart? What are the parallels with Rio and the CV? How did street gangs and prison gang become intertwined in Cape Town?
7. How did the drug trade (crack/cocaine) affect the emergence of gangs? Explain “defensible spaces” in Chicago, Rio and Cape Town. (pages13-15 on the actual book
8. What were the differences between Chicago’s mayor Daley and NYC mayor Lindsay’s approach to gangs and riots? Why were gangs in NYC easily dismantled?
9. What is the connection between Cape Town gangs and the anti-apartheid movement? Why do coloured ( a person of mixed European (“white”) and African (“black”) or Asian ancestry) gangs want to be either black or white?
10. Are institutionalized gangs “organized crime”? Describe the structure of Comando Vermelho, Hard Livings and Chicago gangs. Explain the myth of the “absolute authority of the leader.”
PART 2
1)
After watching the video discuss with your classmates how is the “retreat of state” related to “social disorganization”?
How is Hagedorn’s “social exclusion of the Fourth World” applicable in the favelas?
2)
How are inequality, social exclusion, and polarization connected to neoliberalism?
-Why do most gangs do not institutionalize while some do? Why should gang researchers focus not on the differences but similarities of gangs in LA, Chicago, and the world?
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|