Living in the Shadow of Death: Gangs, Violence and Social Order in Urban Nicaragua, 1996–2002

• Dennis Rodgers ^[1]
  1. [1] London School of Economics and Political Science

     London School of Economics and Political Science

     Reino Unido

     
• Localización: Journal of Latin American Studies, ISSN 0022-216X, ISSN-e 1469-767X, Vol. 38, Nº. 2, 2006, págs. 267-292
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X0600071X
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • This article explores the dynamics of the youth gang (pandilla) phenomenon in contemporary urban Nicaragua, drawing on longitudinal ethnographic research conducted with a Managua pandilla in 1996–97 and in 2002. Pandillas and their violent practices are conceived as constituting a form of local social structuration in the face of broader conditions of high crime, insecurity, and socio-political breakdown. This form of ‘street-level politics’ changed significantly between 1997 and 2002, however, evolving from a form of collective social violence to a more individually and economically motivated type of brutality. This transformation is related to wider structural processes, which are described as coming together and precipitating a form of ‘social death’ in contemporary Nicaragua.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • A. K. Cohen, Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang (Glencoe, 1955).
  • A. Serbin and D. Ferreyra (ed.), Gobernabilidad democrática y seguridad ciudadana en Centroamérica: el caso de Nicaragua (Managua, 2000),...
  • B. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Verso, 1983).
  • C. McIllwaine, ‘Geography and Development: Crime and Violence as Development Issues,’ Progress in Human Geography, vol. 23, no. 3 (1999),...
  • C. Moser and A. Winton, Violence in the Central American Region: Towards an Integrated Framework for Violence Reduction, Overseas Development...
  • C. Moser and C. McIlwaine, Encounters with Violence in Latin America: Urban Poor Perceptions from Colombia and Guatemala, (London, 2004)
  • C. T. Call, Sustainable Development in Central America: The Challenges of Violence, Injustice and Insecurity, CA 2020 working paper no. 8...
  • C. Taylor, ‘Modern Social Imaginaries,’ Public Culture, vol. 14, no. 1 (2002), pp. 91 & 106.
  • C. Tilly, ‘War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,’ in C. Besteman (ed.), Violence: A Reader (New York, 2002)
  • D. Kruijt and K. Koonings, ‘ Introduction: Violence and Fear in Latin America,’ in K. Koonings and D. Kruijt (ed.), Societies of Fear: The...
  • D. Rodgers ‘Haciendo del peligro una vocación: la antropología, la violencia, y los dilemas de la observación participante,’ Revista Española...
  • D. Rodgers, ‘Disembedding the City: Crime, Insecurity, and Spatial Organization in Managua, Nicaragua, ’ Environment and Urbanization, vol....
  • D. Rodgers, ‘La globalización de un barrio desde abajo: emigrantes, remesas, taxis, y drogas,’ Envío, no. 264, March 2004, pp. 23–30
  • D. Rodgers, ‘When Vigilantes Turn Bad: Gangs, Violence, and Social Change in Urban Nicaragua,’ in D. Patten and A. Sen (eds.), Global Vigilantes....
  • D. Rodgers, Living in the Shadow of Death: Violence, Pandillas, and Social Disintegration in Contemporary Urban Nicaragua, unpublished PhD...
  • D. Rodgers, Youth Gangs and Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Literature Survey, World Bank Latin America and Caribbean Region...
  • D. Spencer, Demobilization and Reintegration in Central America, Bonn International Center for Conversion working paper no. 8 (Bonn, 1997).
  • D. Torres Peres (ed.), Historia y violencia en Nicaragua (Managua, 1997).
  • E. Galeano, Patas arriba: la escuela del mundo al revés (Madrid, 1998)
  • E. Hobsbawm, Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movements in the 19th and 20th Centuries (New York, 1959).
  • G. Hage, ‘‘‘Comes a Time We Are All Enthusiasm’’: Understanding Palestinian Suicide Bombers in Times of Exighophobia,’ Public Culture, vol....
  • H. A. Bloch and A. Niederhoffer, The Gang: A Study in Adolescent Behavior (New York, 1958)
  • H. Arendt, On Violence (New York, 1969), p. 5.
  • H. Covey, S. Menard and R. Franzese, Juvenile Gangs, (Springfield, 1992).
  • J. Gould, To Die in this Way: Nicaraguan Indians and the Myth of Mestizaje, 1880–1965 (Durham, 1998)
  • J. J. Sosa Meléndez and J. L. Rocha, ‘Las pandillas en Nicaragua,’ in ERIC, IDESO, IDIES, IUDOP, Maras y pandillas en Centroamérica, vol....
  • J. Katz, Seductions of Crime (New York, 1988).
  • J. L. Rocha, ‘Pandillero: la mano que empuña el mortero,’ Envío, no. 216 (March 2000), p. 20
  • J. Londoño, A. Gaviria and R. Guerrero (ed.), Asalto al desarrollo: violencia en América Latina (Washington, DC, 2000).
  • J. Méndez, G. O’Donnell and P. S. Pinheiro (ed.), The (Un)Rule of Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America (Notre Dame, 1999).
  • J. Pearce, ‘From Civil War To ‘‘Civil Society’’: Has the End of the Cold War Brought Peace to Central America ?,’ International Affairs, vol....
  • J.-C. Núñez, De la ciudad al barrio: redes y tejidos urbanos en Guatemala, El Salvador y Nicaragua (Ciudad de Guatemala, 1996)
  • K. Isbester, ‘Understanding state disintegration: The case of Nicaragua,’ The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies, vol. 21,...
  • K. Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, London, 1976, vol. 1, chapter 26
  • L. Sepúlveda, Rendez-vous d’amour dans un pays en guerre (Paris, 1997)
  • L. Yablonsky, The Violent Gang (New York, 1963).
  • M. Bloch, ‘La ‘‘consummation’’ des jeunes hommes chez les Zafimaniry de Madagascar,’ in F. He´ritier (ed.), De la violence (Paris, 1996),...
  • M. de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, 1984).
  • M. Douglas, How Institutions Think (London, 1987), p. 66.
  • M. Sánchez Jankowski, Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society (Berkeley, 1991).
  • O. de Rivero, El mito del desarrollo: los países inviables en el siglo XXI (Lima, 1998)
  • P. Fajnzylber, D. Lederman and N. Loayza, Determinants of Crime Rates in Latin America and the World: An Empirical Assessment, World Bank...
  • R. Ayres, Crime and Violence as Development Issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, World Bank Latin American and Caribbean Studies Viewpoint...
  • R. Cloward and L. Ohlin, Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of Delinquent Gangs (New York, 1960).
  • R. Debray, ‘Une ‘‘modération’’ radicale,’ Manière de Voir, no. 36 (Nov.–Dec. 1997), p. 16.
  • R. Horowitz, ‘Sociological perspectives on gangs: Conflicting definitions and concepts,’ in C. R. Huff (ed.), Gangs in America (Newbury Park,...
  • R. J. Cajina, ‘Nicaragua: de la seguridad del Estado a la inseguridad ciudadana,’ in A. Serbin and D. Ferreyra (ed.), Gobernabilidad democrática...
  • R. Lancaster, Life is Hard: Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua (Berkeley, 1992), p. 195
  • R. Latham, ‘Social Sovereignty,’ Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 17, no. 4 (2000), pp. 2–3.
  • R. Montoya, ‘House, Street, Collective: Revolutionary Geographies and Gender Transformation in Nicaragua, 1979–99,’ Latin American Research...
  • T. Callaghy, ‘The State as Lame Leviathan,’ in Z. Ergas (ed.), The African State in Transition (New York, 1987).
  • T. P. R. Caldeira, ‘Crime and individual rights: Reframing the Question of Violence in Latin America,’ in E. Jelin and E. Hershberg (ed.),...
  • U. Beck, ‘World Risk Society as Cosmopolitan Society ? Ecological Questions in a Framework of Manufactured Uncertainties,’ Theory, Culture...
  • U. Hannerz, Soulside: Inquiries into Ghetto Culture and Community (New York, 1969)
  • W. F. Whyte, Street Corner Society: The Structure of an Italian Slum, (Chicago, 1943).
  • W. Godnick, with R. Muggah and C. Waszink, Stray Bullets: The Impact of Small Arms Misuse in Central America, Small Arms Survey Occasional...