Abstract
In Gangs and a Global Sociological Imagination, Alistair Fraser and John Hagedorn argue that across the globe, the phenomenon of youth gangs has become an important and sensitive public issue. As a result research attention has focused on the development of what they describe as ‘universalized definitions’ of gangs in a global context. In this chapter, they contend that this search for similarity has resulted in a failure to recognize and understand difference. Drawing on an alternative methodology they call a ‘global exchange’, the chapter suggests three concepts—homologies of habitus, vectors of difference and transnational reflexivity—which will enable gang researchers to re-engage ‘the sociological imagination’ in the study of gangs and globalization.
This chapter was originally published as Fraser, A. and Hagedorn, J. (2018) Gangs and a Global Sociological Imagination. Theoretical Criminology, 22(1), 42–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480616659129. Reproduced with permission.
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Hagedorn, J., Fraser, A. (2023). Gangs and a Global Sociological Imagination. In: Andell, P., Pitts, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Youth Gangs in the UK . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99658-1_6
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