Street Culture in Latin America

• In Event: Roundtable: New Research on the Role of Street Culture and Crime

Abstract

What is the role of street culture in Latin America? Based on qualitative life-story interviews with 400 prisoners in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Honduras, and Mexico we argue that in some areas, street culture has moved beyond certain marginalized urban areas and become institutionalised in a different way than in the Global North. Although there are many similarities, the street field sometimes replaces the State and fills a gap left open by the absence of a functioning labour market. The role of street culture in social space in Latin America is discussed using concepts developed by Bourdieusian criminology.

Author

• Sveinung Sandberg, University of Oslo