The Codes of the Street in Risky Neighborhoods: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Youth Violence in Germany, Pakistan, and South Africa

Heitmeyer, Wilhelm; Howell, S. L.; Kurtenbach, Sebastian; Rauf, Abdur; Zaman, Muhammad H.; Zdun, Steffen

doi:10.21428/cb6ab371.ab7dc5ba

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The purpose of the interviews was to obtain information about the juveniles’ perceptions of the core elements of the code of the street. These elements were derived from Anderson’s original work via Heitmeyer and colleagues (2019), and they are Respect (Anderson, 1999: 33, 78), Friends and Family (Anderson, 1999: 49, 67, 85), Perception of violence (Anderson, 1999: 68, 70), Success and aspiration (Anderson, 1999: 38, 53–63), Symbols (Anderson, 1999: 67, 112, 113), Masculinity (Anderson, 1999: 91, 136, 146), Street etiquette (Anderson, 1999: 79, 86), Enemy (Anderson, 1999: 81, 90) and Neighbourhood perception (Anderson, 1999: 92, 112, 117). These elements were incorporated into an interview guideline, which guarantees comparability among all interviews as well as with Anderson’s original work.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The reasons for these differences, which range from the Roma's specific cultural background to the political economy of Southeast Europe as post-socialist neoliberal economies, cannot be tested with our dataset. But the consequence of these differences is that the street code as identified by Anderson is not as generalizable across marginalized neighbourhood contexts as has been claimed (Heitmeyer et al, 2019;Wacquant, 2002), although it may be possible to develop a more general code of the street that also applies to youth violence in others parts of the world.…”

Section: Feeling Familiar In the Neighbourhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They interpret these differences as determined by culturally specific influences. Heitmeyer and colleagues (2019) conducted an international study that compared the code of the street in Germany, South Africa and Pakistan and found that the code has a stable core, but they also identified differences in different contexts. Heitmeyer et al’s study is especially valuable because it demonstrates that a single code does not exist.…”

Section: Code Of the Street: A Spatial Perspective On Youth Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…All of these studies have focused on disadvantaged groups, but without unpacking the issue of discrimination. Furthermore, exept for Naterer (2015) and Heitmeyer and colleagues (2019), these studies are focused exclusively on the US and Western Europe. To help fill a gap in the debate, it is necessary to examine whether the street code operates among a minority subject to discrimination in the Southeast European context, a region that has undergone a deep transformation over the last three decades.…”

Section: Code Of the Street: A Spatial Perspective On Youth Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

‘I fear only the neighbourhood and the Lord!’ Youth violence in marginalized spaces

Kurtenbach

2021

European Journal of Criminology

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Male juveniles in segregated poor neighbourhoods are at increased risk of violence. The code of the street approach is commonly used to understand the context informing street violence in such marginalized spaces, but the concept is mainly used in Western countries, especially in African American communities in the US. This study investigates whether the code of the street is also applicable to the largest Roma neighbourhood in Europe, located in Bulgaria, through guided interviews with male juveniles. The results show that some elements of the code work are applicable in this space, but clear differences also emerge. These findings affect the generalizability of the approach and the understanding of street violence.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Feeling Familiar In the Neighbourhoodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Code Of the Street: A Spatial Perspective On Youth Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Code Of the Street: A Spatial Perspective On Youth Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

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‘I fear only the neighbourhood and the Lord!’ Youth violence in marginalized spaces

Kurtenbach

2021

European Journal of Criminology

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“…For this reason, it also appears relevant to ask how street management is done in other socio-spatial contexts -such as suburbia. While most studies with a reference to space focus on urban street culture (Ross 2018(Ross , 2021Ilan 2016), the planning of street sociability (Mehta 2013;Moudon 1987) or on violent neighbourhood and youth behaviour (Sharkey 2006;Anderson 1999;Steward and Simons 2010;Keith and Griffith 2014;Intravia et al 2018;Heitmeyer 2019;Kurtenbach et al 2021), there is hardly any empirical material on ordinary street life in suburbs. I assume that suburban (street) spaces are spheres of comfort as they appear uneventful.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Streets in Suburbia as Spheres of Comfort

Göb

2024

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How to manage the “self” on the streets of suburbia when everybody knows each other? Due to the social and spatial manageability of suburban spaces, contact with more or less (un)known others is to be expected. Through repeated and continuous contact, residents are automatically and reciprocally assigned the role of acquaintances. This situation requires finding the right distance. The positioning of oneself and others, the perception and practice of distance, results in comfort and freedom from conflict. This coping strategy for public (street)spaces reflects a socio-spatial (con)figuration that is enacted as street management. Although street life is dominated by the notion of nothingness, everyone campaigns to stay private in public by setting up a “public self”. The research findings I refer to are based on two case studies in suburban spaces on the outskirts of Hanover (the state capital of Lower Saxony, Germany). In order to understand and explain the life-worlds of suburbanites in general and their manifestation on streets in particular, I conducted exploratory interviews, go-alongs and field observations. To create an atmosphere of comfort, convivial as well as conflictual situations are to be avoided, which is achieved by the residents positioning themselves and others at a distance. Since street life in the suburbs is uneventful and provides a sense of security and familiarity, living together in coexistence is routine. The delegation of responsibility for everything public enables suburbanites to be indifferent to others and the setting. The minimal sympathetic way of interacting with each other is symbolised by greetings, which both facilitates and hinders communication. In the end, the life-world suburbia and its streets are spheres of comfort because they are manageable, expectable and knowable.

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The violent beauty of a banlieue wasteland garden

Harper

2024

Conjunctions

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Participatory arts can invite stormy and violent forms of participation when they are commissioned for sites where frustration, territorial control and pre-emptive self-defense involve practices of accepted street codes by those living within racialized, febrile territories. Through the case study of Aroma Home, a participatory art gardening project, in Paris’s northern peripheries, I analyze instances of affective, symbolic, performative and territorial violence as non-normative political acts of participation. Examining the underlying contexts and logics that led to these incidents, I argue that the most insidious act of violence in the project was the creation of our invasive, extractive garden on a hitherto unclaimed and unidentified patch of ‘free’ public ground. In creating a new identity for this wasteland and defining its use, we effectively limited, and implicitly prescribed, modes of participation that were culturally alien to those we most wanted to involve.

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The Codes of the Street in Risky Neighborhoods: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Youth Violence in Germany, Pakistan, and South Africa

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

‘I fear only the neighbourhood and the Lord!’ Youth violence in marginalized spaces

‘I fear only the neighbourhood and the Lord!’ Youth violence in marginalized spaces

Streets in Suburbia as Spheres of Comfort

The violent beauty of a banlieue wasteland garden

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