Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part 1 Literature review, theoretical frame and researching youth violence
- Part 2 Meaningful responses to youth violence
- Part 3 Rethinking youth work practice and policy
- Part 4 Youth work responses in action: case studies of praxis
- References
- Index
eleven - Responding to structural and symbolic violence: a comparative case study
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Part 1 Literature review, theoretical frame and researching youth violence
- Part 2 Meaningful responses to youth violence
- Part 3 Rethinking youth work practice and policy
- Part 4 Youth work responses in action: case studies of praxis
- References
- Index
Summary
Case Study 1: exemplifying structural and symbolic violence: Islington, London
“I’m used to the struggle
Used to seeing youths leave school just to hustle
Hitting up a few moves
Getting gassed and go hard with the food
Until they’re facing a cell like Majin Buu
But ain't really got a choice when you can't afford creps, G
When your fridge and your belly stay empty
This will make a man squeeze until it's empty
Take a man's Ps if he stunts and try tempt me
’Cos it's the same everyday
Another soul lost I felt them cold chills
Ain't got to say it u feel it so real
Cold meals sitting in a cell
Roads don't wish a nigga well
This one's for my easy ones
Everybody hustling to see the funds
Young mum hustling to feed her son
Everybody hustling to beat the crunch”
(Extract from a young man's rap)The London borough of Islington in many ways embodies a polarised disparity between rich and poor. Close to central London, booming property prices have brought huge windfall affluence to many of Islington's residents, many of whom are working in the new knowledge economy of the technology or finance sectors. Others have been left behind, unable to get on the property ladder, or entirely socially excluded, unemployed or functioning within a growing black economy. With the decline of traditional blue-collar industry, local working-class communities within the borough have become pockets of deprivation, with diminishing levels of social capital and rising levels of crime and violence.
The young people we met on these estates in Islington (such as the young man who produced the rap above) were at the sharp end of these macro-level processes. Young people were being drawn into violence, some as victims, as this worker explains:
“I’m thinking of a young person who first came on the radar, under the umbrella – victim, he was set upon by12-15 boys outside school. When we were engaging with him, he was always under that umbrella of victim. His family background, his mum, quite God-fearing, tried hard by him, he had good support network within the family, sisters all very concerned about his welfare.
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- Information
- Responding to Youth Violence through Youth Work , pp. 183 - 194Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2016