‘#It’s Dangerous’: The Online World of Drug Dealers, Rappers and the Street Code

GangstaLife: Fusing Urban Ethnography with Netnography in Gang Studies

“…As is common for many disadvantaged and racialized young men in North America, several participants were trying to establish (and some, successfully established) themselves in Toronto's rap scene, as they considered rap as one of their only viable career choices (Sköld and Rehn 2007). Consequently, many of them relied upon social media platforms to share and promote their rap music, music videos, upcoming shows, and to enhance their overall "street cred" as rappers and gangsters (Urbanik and Haggerty 2018). During the course of the study, several young neighbourhood men were shot and killed, including some of Urbanik's participants, which many residents attributed to rap rivalries or longstanding inter-neighbourhood "beefs."…”

“…May this be different for criminally-involved participants who generally tend to be more distrustful of anyone, including researchers, and who may therefore carefully vet who can see their online content? What about for criminally-involved participants who have public accounts despite their knowledge that anyone-including law enforcement-can easily find and access their digital content (Urbanik and Haggerty 2018;Urbanik et al forthcoming)? Some gang ethnographers may be amused by the idea that despite having established enough rapport with participants to observe participants' real-world criminal activities and violence (i.e., drug and weapons trafficking, fights with rivals, etc.…”

“…Despite her original disinterest, Urbanik slowly began to recognize that her online relationships with research participants were an invaluable research tool for understanding the social dynamics in the neighbourhood; the sociological and criminological relevance of their online presentations was immense as their online interactions notably shaped their real-world movements and behaviours (see Urbanik and Haggerty 2018;Urbanik forthcoming). Further, she could easily find and connect with many of her participants online through skimming existing followers and comments, she knew what was happening in the neighbourhood even when she was at home, and she was able to put faces to names for those she had not yet met in person.…”

“…They warn against the implications of not incorporating social media dynamics in urban ethnography, citing the potential neglect of critical contextualizing data that may alter findings and potentially jeopardize research validity (Lane 2015(Lane / 2018see also boyd 2014, 30). In addition, some have argued that disregarding social media dynamics may even skew conclusions, given that online and offline environs are mutually constituted, evolve in tandem, and can have quite serious and even deadly consequences for some participants (Urbanik and Haggerty 2018). This inattention can therefore result in a lack of understanding or misunderstanding and therefore, a misrepresentation of research participants and/or social phenomena under study.…”

“…In this article, we flesh out some of our personal deliberations and challenges relating to fusing urban ethnography with studying our participants' online worlds. We draw from our respective ethnographic studies with gang-involved participants, one based in Toronto's Regent Park neighbourhood (Canada), and the other in The Hague's "Forgotten Village" (the Netherlands), in which we separately concluded that we could not neglect our participants' social media experiences; their social media accounts and interactions were a goldmine of information for our ethnographic findings (Roks 2017;Urbanik and Haggerty 2018). This article proceeds as follows: We first outline our research projects and describe how and why we decided to incorporate social media into our respective ethnographies.…”