The gang problem in Spain: An object of academic production and ethnographic activism

Abstract

Since 2003, the topic of gangs in Spain has become both an object and a problem in the public discourse on migrant youth; a social phenomenon and a media narrative which establishes the dangerous nature of new social subjects in urban spaces and closely connects them with ethnic labelling (Latino gangs). How is this discourse received by Spanish academia and rearticulated in the existing theoretical frames? How do academics act in the field of policy interventions that have attempted to control, punish, correct and transform the gang experience as a form of youth sociability since 2004? This article explores the relationship between the gang as a problem-object in public discourse and policies and academics as authors and actors. The methodology is based on in-depth interviews with institutional and academic stakeholders in Madrid and Barcelona and on ethnographic experiences with street gangs.