Gangs, methodology and ethical protocols: ethnographic challenges in researching youth street groups

Gangs have been described as an episodic phenomenon comparable across diverse geographical sites, with the US gang stereotype often acting as the archetype. Mirroring this trend, academic researchers have increasingly sought to survey the global topography of gangs through positivist methodologies t...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Feixa, Carles, 1962-, Sánchez García, José, Brisley, Adam
Format: article
Status:Versión aceptada para publicación
Publication Date:2020
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Repository:Repositorio Digital de la UPF
OAI Identifier:oai:repositori.upf.edu:10230/45171
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10230/45171
https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43151-020-00009-1
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Youth Street Groups
Gangs
Methodology
Research
Description
Summary:Gangs have been described as an episodic phenomenon comparable across diverse geographical sites, with the US gang stereotype often acting as the archetype. Mirroring this trend, academic researchers have increasingly sought to survey the global topography of gangs through positivist methodologies that seek out universal characteristics of gangs in different cultural contexts. So, research about youth street groups requires an innovative methodological approach to develop a renewed approach for the twenty-first century’s youth street groups, different from the local, coetaneous, male and face-to-face model, used to understand the twentieth century’s gangs. How can complex social forms such as street gangs be researched in the twenty-first century? Can a single ethnographic approach be shared by researchers working in entirely different cultural contexts? What novel methodological and ethical challenges emerge from such a task and how might they be resolved? This article examines the methodological perspectives of the TRANSGANG project.