YOUTH GANGS AND PERVERSE LIVELIHOODS STRATEGIES IN NICARAGUA: CHALLENGING CERTAIN PRECONCEPTIONS AND SHIFTING THE FOCUS OF ANALYSIS

Abstract: On the basis of longitudinal ethnographic research carried out in a poor neighbourhood in Managua (Nicaragua) in 1996-97 and 2002-03, this paper describes the dynamics of urban youth gangs and their violence in order to highlight the way in which under certain conditions they can be seen as not solely destructive but socially constructive. In particular, it shows how gangs in “fragile ” states are often forms of “social sovereignty ” that provide localised systems of “meta-political ” order allowing for the coherent articulation of livelihood strategies and asset building in areas where the state is predominantly absent. Such an analysis suggests that instead of thinking about gangs as “perverse livelihood strategies”, it is perhaps more important – and more accurate – that we think about the fact that they tend to emerge in “perverse contexts”, and that it is these that constitute the principal problem from a developmental perspective