Transitory Mobility, Cultural Heterogeneity, and Victimization Risk Among Young Men of Color: Insights From an Ethnographic Study in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

The coupling of racial and economic stratification has been found to result in a range of adverse outcomes for youth of color, including disproportionate exposure to violence and victimization. Primary explanations of these patterns, particularly at the micro-level, have focused on the impact of street culture. In this article, we draw from a multiyear ethnography in Cape Town, South Africa, to offer a theoretical elaboration of the place of culture in contributing to victimization risks among urban minority young men. The study is based on data collected from a sample of 26 young men of color who lived on the Cape Flats between 2003 and 2006. Using grounded theory methods, we suggest the *

Women's Gender Performances and Cultural Heterogeneity in the Illegal Drug Economy

“…Subcultural theories and neutralization theories are both rooted in the classic Parsonian view on culture as shared values. Another body of literature has formulated more complex views of culture (e.g., Lindegaard, Miller, and Reynald, ; Small, Harding, and Lamont, ; Swidler, ). From these perspectives, culture is theorized as heterogeneous, fragmented, and complex.…”

“…Individuals in culturally heterogeneous communities can face difficulties making decisions and “choosing a course of action,” which in turn can have problematic long‐term consequences, especially for young people trying to find their identities (Harding, : 156). Building on this and other work, Lindegaard, Miller, and Reynald () used the concept of flexible cultural repertories to capture how some young South African men in disadvantaged neighborhoods were able to change their behavior and presentation of self by using different cultural markers when moving between suburban neighborhoods and the townships where they lived. Importantly, the capacity to adapt to the expectations of different cultural settings was not “a natural occurrence” (Lindegaard, Miller, and Reynald, : 999), but it counted for some individuals with a special talent for cultural navigation.…”

“…Building on this and other work, Lindegaard, Miller, and Reynald () used the concept of flexible cultural repertories to capture how some young South African men in disadvantaged neighborhoods were able to change their behavior and presentation of self by using different cultural markers when moving between suburban neighborhoods and the townships where they lived. Importantly, the capacity to adapt to the expectations of different cultural settings was not “a natural occurrence” (Lindegaard, Miller, and Reynald, : 999), but it counted for some individuals with a special talent for cultural navigation. Their findings suggest that the ability to make use of cultural heterogeneity was beneficial (i.e., by reducing the risk of victimization) for those who had this ability.…”

“…Although many scholars have used the doing gender framework in their research on criminals (e.g., Copes and Hochstetler, ; Miller, , ; Messerschmidt, ; Mullins, Wright, and Jacobs, ), we know little about the factors influencing variations in gender performances among criminals. To understand the circumstances under which different gender performances take place, this study unites the doing gender framework (West and Zimmerman, ) with complex views of culture (e.g., Harding, ; Small, Harding, and Lamont, ; Lindegaard, Miller, and Reynald, ). Specifically, I investigate how different gender performances among female drug dealers are rooted in variations in their cultural “tool kits” (Swidler, ), which themselves appear to be shaped by several sociodemographic factors, including age, time of entrée into the drug economy, and educational and employment history.…”

Violence makes safe in South African prisons

“…In-depth studies of the social world of young men living in disadvantaged urban areas have shown how violence can be understood as a method of communicating social meaning in contexts where such actions are expected or at least tolerated (Canada 1995;Lindegaard and Jacques 2014;Sullivan 1989). It has been argued that people who are unable to gain status through conventional means, such as employment and education, develop a certain culture, referred to as the "code of the street" (Anderson 1999) or "street culture" (Vigil 2002), which promotes alternative ways of gaining recognition and respect (Lindegaard et al 2013). The ability and willingness to use violence may be integral to such alternative social codes (Dance 2002;Fagan and Wilkinson 1998).…”