A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture

By John Hagedorn

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From L.A. to Lagos, Port-au-Prince to Paris-a provocative analysis of the global proliferation of street gangs

For the more than a billion people who now live in urban slums, gangs are ubiquitous features of daily life. Though still most closely associated with American cities, gangs are an entrenched, worldwide phenomenon that play a significant role in a wide range of activities, from drug dealing to extortion to religious and political violence. In A World of Gangs, John Hagedorn explores this international proliferation of the urban gang as a consequence of the ravages of globalization.

Looking closely at gang formation in three world cities—Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, and Capetown—he discovers that some gangs have institutionalized as a strategy to confront a hopeless cycle of poverty, racism, and oppression. In particular, Hagedorn reveals, the nihilistic appeal of gangsta rap and its street ethic of survival “by any means necessary” provides vital insights into the ideology and persistence of gangs around the world.

This groundbreaking work concludes on a hopeful note. Proposing ways in which gangs might be encouraged to overcome their violent tendencies, Hagedorn appeals to community leaders to use the urgency, outrage, and resistance common to both gang life and hip-hop in order to bring gangs into broader movements for social justice.

"A World of Gangs is an illuminating journey around the cultures, lives, tragedies and dreams of millions of rebellious youth around the planet. It brings together the rigorous tools of social research with an extraordinary sensitivity for the human experience and an unusual analytical capacity to make sense of it all. It is an indispensable work to understand the world we live in and essential reading for students of cities and communities." —Manuel Castells, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and City Planning, University of California, Berkeley

Paperback: 216 pages
Publisher: , 2008
Language: English
ISBN: 0741438313
Price: $25.95