Post #9: Social groups and social stratification

Why are street gangs in retreat in New York City, a city that was once practically synonymous with the phrase urban street gang? That's the question asked by the author of the article "Gang Busters". One of the forces, suggested in the article, as being a contributing factor in the decline of gangs in the city, is urban renewal.The author brings up a good point that the urban landscape of New York has changed significantly in the last 30 years. Some iconic neighborhoods have been bulldozered in order to free up land for new urban developments like Lincoln Center (link). Similarly, new immigrant arrivals are "too savvy to move into the notorious inner-city neighborhoods"(link). But New York's street gangs have evolved too. Where before they were divided by race and/or ethnicity, presently (or as of 2002 when this article was written) these boundaries don't seem to stop members of different minorities such as Yugoslavian, Albanian and Pakistani youths from joining together to start their own gangs. Latinos and Caucasians are also becoming accepted in what once had been African American-only gangs such as the Crips or Bloods. To me it seems that the street gang culture has simply changed to be defined by different norms. So where in the past gangs would organize according to specific neighborhood affiliation or ethnic group loyalty, modern youths are more driven by the promise of making a quick buck on the drug market. Yet gang affiliations are still valued over simple freelance drug trafficking because gang membership offers important rewards such as social status, prestige and protection within a countercultural group context. And for many youths the idea of belonging to a recognized group/club, even a criminal one, is a reward in on itself. So from this article it seems that although the more infamous ethnic/racial gangs are losing ground, there are many new gangs being created in New York. These gangs are still formed as a way to construct an important social boundary, or perhaps a way to define newly-formed cultural distinctions, between the few gang members and "others"(law-abiding citizens) on the other side.

In words of Fredrik Barth, "the cultural features that signal the boundary may change, and the cultural characteristics of the members may likewise be transformed" yet the continuing dichotomization between members and outsiders remains.