Gangs and Peacemaking in Comparative Perspective

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Around the world, the gang phenomenon has become an area of intense public and political scrutiny. Street gangs are often reported in communities where state authority is weak and economic marginalisation is intensely felt. While global changes have accelerated these conditions, in some parts of the world gangs remain a predominantly street-based, youthful phenomenon, whereas in others gangs have evolved into non state actors who play a role in the maintenance of social order. While much attention has to date focused on responding to gangs as a criminal entity, far less focus has been paid to the existential conundurums posed by gangs as non state actors, their representation of an alternative form of social order and security, and the role of transnational forces in their evolution. This panel seeks to draw together contributors from a range of disciplinary, practitioner and geographical backgrounds to gangs and peacemaking in comparative perspective, drawing out parallels and contrasts across a range of different global contexts.

Sub Unit

• Area XI: Global Perspectives / 65: Cross-National Comparisons

Individual Presentations

• Insurgent Gangs: Human Rights, Political Economy and the the Gang Truce in El Salvador - Rafa Gude, Latin America Programme, Institute for Statecraft

• The evolution of Mexico’s street gangs in the context of the war on drugs - Sonja Wolf, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE)

• Gangs and Humanitarianism in Comparative Context: Perspectives from Practice - Audrey Palama, Independent Researcher (formerly ICRC)

Chair

• Alistair Fraser, University of Glasgow

Discussant

• John Hagedorn, University of Illinois at Chicago