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CONFLICT THEORY IN A HOUSING PROJECT.
Term Paper ID:30560
Essay Subject:
Applies the principles of conflict theory to the interactions between a street gang and the Tenants' Council of a housing project.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Applies the principles of conflict theory to the interactions between a street gang and the Tenants' Council of a housing project. Ideology of the gang, and its control of economic and cultural resources. How this related to the circumstances of their community. Attitudes of housing project residents toward the gang and its violence. Inter-gang conflict.
Paper Introduction:
This essay applies the principles of conflict theory to the interactions between a street gang denominated the "Saints" and the tenants' Council of a housing project, designated Blackstone, that is located in a large midwestern city and was studied by Venkatesh. The conflict between these groups developed over a number of years and when it reached a climax with a sharp increase in violence and danger to residents, especially small children, the two groups developed an accord as the Saints took the unprecedented step of entering into community affairs in order to ensure that the conflict did not force a slowdown in their business operations. This change took place only after the 'corporatization' of the Saints and it took place because residents were sure that the state was no longer involved in ensuring their safety.
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But as the gang began its process of corporatization in the earlynineties it had incorporated a level of the community-support function thatgangs had taken on in the early eighties but long neglected. Thisinstability of group membership, combined with the violence inherent ininter-gang conflict (which arises chiefly from wars over drug-selling turf)and the ease with which inter-gang accords can be violated, contribute tothe creation of a community in which there is very little long-termstability in relations between two primary interest groups. This was important because, even though every actor was likely to beaffected in various ways by material factors such as physical environment,methods of communication, availability and type of weapons, means ofcreating public image, and others, not every actor was going to be affectedin the same way. Collins' second point for analysis is the contention that "potentialconflicting interests become effective to the extent that they aremobilized, relative to the mobilization of opposing interests" (289). The gang had clearly been able to impose its will on the communityand had effectively replaced the state in terms of the everyday life of thecommunity. It continued to exercisepower over the gangs, however, in the form of the threat of incarceration.None the less, the absence of any recourse eventually led the residents toseek other solutions. "The Impact of Gang Violence on the Decisions of Everyday Life: Disjunctions between policy Assumptions and Community Conditions." Journal of Urban Affairs, 19 (1997): 143-62.Ritzer, George. They also provided recommendations to thegang regarding people in need or general community needs, thus securingsome authority in the process of disbursing benefits to their constituentsagain. The Saints initially had nocounter-mobilization plans. The representatives were also in a positionto control benefits such as part-time employment and emergency loans. This meant, therefore, that exceptfor those residents who refused to accommodate the gang in any way, theresidents were even more willing than they had been before the latest drive-by shootings to interact as peacefully as possible with the gang. The community studied by Venkatesh was a housing project built in thelate 195 s with, at present, approximately 8, residents. Bythe early nineties, however, representatives could no longer secure decentlevels of maintenance and had far less success in lobbying law enforcementsupport for the community's security. But, being aware that sociology needs to address the macrolevel too, he also looked at societal structures, whereupon he developedhis view, unusual in conflict theory (where "the actor was seen asconstrained by external forces"), that "the actor is constantly creatingand recreating social organization" (Ritzer 128). In terms of economic resources the gang hadalways had the upper hand but the disappearance of even the slight controlover funds available to the Council--and of most of the services they couldcommand--radically altered the difference between the two interest groups.In terms of power resources, which Collins thinks of as "positions withincontrol networks" the Council retained only a low level of power as theonly influence they had was based on access to the 'higher' powers of theadministration and law enforcement (Collins 289). Often when gang activities are, however unwillingly,tolerated by local communities this is enabled by the gangs' adherence to"a fairly clear set of locally defined standards for such behavior"(Puntenney 159). "What Does Conflict Theory Predict about America's Future?" Sociological Perspectives, 36.4 (1993): 289-3 .Puntenney, Deborah L. Each of these points will be discussed as it applies to thecircumstances of the Saints gang and the residents of the Blackstoneprojects. The actors inVenkatesh's study provide an excellent example of this proposition.Collins' principal work was on a conflict theory of stratification but hebelieved that his principles of conflict analysis "could be applied to anyarea of social life" (Ritzer 13 ). Collins also provides four principle points to be considered whenapplying conflict theory in a situation and the analysis will refer tothese as well. This meant that the gang was further mobilizing itsresources to minimize continuing conflict with the Council by granting themembers some degree of authority in the newly organized social space. At this point the Grace Center, a community centernear Blackstone, offered to intervene with conflict resolution from thePeace Now organization that acted in gang-community conflicts. This essay applies the principles of conflict theory to theinteractions between a street gang denominated the "Saints" and thetenants' Council of a housing project, designated Blackstone, that islocated in a large midwestern city and was studied by Venkatesh. In terms of economic resources the gang in Venkatesh's studyclearly was in the superior position. The theory's application had, therefore, to be situation-specific. Those with the power thatderives from the possession of resources can impose their "idea systems" onthe community and those without such power usually have no recourse but tobe so imposed upon (Ritzer 13 ). Four major points describe the orientation of Collins' version ofconflict theory. Thus, notonly had the Council lost its power to disburse a small range of benefitsbut this function had also been assumed by the Saints. But, in most ways affecting the question of local safety,those possessed of this kind of authority had withdrawn (or were perceivedto have withdrawn) from the situation at the Blackstone housing project.In fact the authority of the state withdrew only insofar as it affected thesafety of the non-gang residents of Blackstone. The fourth of Collins' points is thatcultural factors--such as beliefs and ideals--have to be viewed through thelenses of interests, resources, and power. For this situation it is conflict theory as developed byRandall Collins that has the greatest explanatory power because the notionof social structures as external and coercive structures, as inDahrendorf's theory, is inadequate to account for the type of interactiondescribed by Venkatesh (Ritzer 128). Since the Council--the holders of the little power thatoperated on behalf of the residents' interests--were able to gain access toand responses from the newly instituted authority, i.e., the Saints, theneed for conflict diminished considerably just at the point where thecouncil's resources had become seriously depleted. Collins argued that people operate in a fashion similar tothat of animals who act out of self-interest, performing "maneuvers toobtain various advantages so that they can achieve satisfaction" (Ritzer13 ). The tenants' Council had threeimportant types of control over status: they ran the meetings and generallyorganized the tenants' interests; they organized and encouraged self-policing efforts (such as neighborhood watches and crime-spotting patrolsmeant to limit gang activity to certain areas); and, in all cases, theywere the 'legitimate' side of life in the community while the gang wasalways in imminent danger from law enforcement. But it was also areaction to the Saints' mobilization of their interests. His second point was that material arrangements have a major effecton human interactions and this required attention to the specifics of eachcase. It should first be noted, however, that the situation described byVenkatesh is rooted in the circumstances of the particular community shestudied. Exploitation of this kind is not necessarily a conscious act.Instead those who exploit are simply acting in what they feel are their ownbest interests and this may incidentally "tak[e] advantage of those wholack resources" (Ritzer 13 ). Finally, Collins indicates the importance of status resources whichhe describes as "control over social rituals producing group solidarity andgroup symbolism" (289). This wasmotivated in part by the fact that the decline in that power signaled adecline in services and abandonment by the state. Collins, however, saw socialstructures primarily as "interaction patterns" and believed that they were"inseparable from the actors who construct them and whose interactionpatterns are their essence" (Ritzer 128). The four principles that are relevanthere (the fifth principle involves the scientific study of socialphenomena) demonstrate the importance of both a real-life demonstration ofhis theory and the major role that control of, or access to, resourcesplays in it. Theinterests of the Saints were therefore protected as a measure of stabilitywas restored and this served some of the basic interests of the residentsas well. Thus, even though theyallow that the activities of the gangs are the basic cause of many of theinstabilities that plague the community, "residents embrace gang members aswayward kin rather than ostracizing them completely as social deviants whoneed the discipline of law" (Venkatesh 97). As Venkatesh notes, it is also significant that the membership of thegangs changes far more frequently and rapidly than the membership of theresidents' group. In addition there are shifting attitudes toward gangmembership on the part of parents who might accept it in theory but areeither pushed beyond tolerance by the danger it poses for their children orpossess "an unwillingness to accept the level of violence and intimidationthat currently exists" (Puntenney 159). Many of the latter group in Venkatesh's study had livedin the same housing project since the 196 s and 197 s while many of thegang members' parents had lived there since the 197 s. There are three types of social resource that produceconflict: economic resources, power resources, and status or culturalresources. Conflict theory as conceived by Ralf Dahrendorf held that socialorder stemmed from "the coercion of some members by those at the top"(Ritzer 123). But the tenant's council had alsocontrolled considerable resources (relative to the economy) up until themid-eighties. Collins' first point in conflict theory analysis is that "each socialresource produces a potential conflict, between those who have it and thosewho have not" (289). Collins' first point was that there must be application of the theoryto real life; a position indicative of a preference for Marxian-stylematerial analysis as opposed to structural functionalism's dryabstractions. Certainlythe residents' acquiescence in accepting this largesse was mainly "afunction of macrostructural constraints" in view of their poverty and lackof access to other institutional resources (Venkatesh 9 ). This change took place only after the 'corporatization' of theSaints and it took place because residents were sure that the state was nolonger involved in ensuring their safety. In thispopulation only 4% of the households reported income from legal employment. In this case the rituals of membership in thegang, behavior in the public sphere, and the status involved--especially inthe eyes of young males--had grown in importance as law enforcement backedaway from efforts at policing the project. In 1992 the emergence of an alternate economy had become, especially aswelfare payments shrank to a level inadequate for even basic needs, vitalto the survival of the people there. In many cases wherecommunities are intolerant of gang activities, Puntenney notes, "vestigesof past tolerance are [still] apparent" and this is important because itindicates the period of time over which these problems have existed andhints at the degree to which the residents' (i.e., non-gang memberresidents) history and personal relationships are intertwined with thosewho belong to the gangs (159). Shortly beforethe period studied by Venkatesh, however, young drunken members of theRoaches made an ineffective start at a war with the Saints and in theseries of shootings that took place a small girl was killed and her friendwounded as they played outside their building. Underorders from their superiors the Saints accepted the offer and, despiteprotests, the Council agreed as well. One of the major variables to be considered (and one that hassignal importance in Venkatesh's groups) is the resources that thedifferent actors possess. In the casestudied by Venkatesh the conflict produced change via the disparity ofresource levels between the residents and the gang. But there weremany who refused to accept such benefits and remained opposed to grantingthe Saints any degree of legitimacy as representatives of the community'sinterests, arguing that the primary interests of the Saints necessarilyinvolved the exploitation of the community. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2 .Venkatesh, Sudhir Alladi. The Council had, since the early 197 s, featured onerepresentative from each of the project's buildings and this, in effect,created a "building-centered" social space in which levels of service,reputations, degree of criminal activity, and attention from administrativeagencies varied widely and were perceived to depend on each building'srepresentative on the Council. TheCouncil members were, for example, liaisons between gangs and non-gangresidents (especially young people) who wished to move between the Saints'and the Roaches' territories. This economy was "anchored in theavailability of sporadic part-time work, the distribution of illicit goodsand services, informal labor including car repair, gypsy cab service,domestic work, and the sale of homemade goods such as crafts, clothing, andfood items" and, of course, the side products of gang activity for thosewho cooperated in smaller matters such as hiding caches of weapons or cashin their homes (Venkatesh 83). At the same time the gang, because of its control ofeconomic and symbolic cultural resources, was able to impose its ownideology and emerge in a position of authority that belied the nature ofits enterprise. Modern Sociological Theory. "The Social Organization of Street Gang Activity in an Urban Ghetto." American Journal of Sociology, 1 3 (1997): 82- 111. 5th ed. There have been numerous instances of urban gangs that have"assume[d] a protective role in the community" but in most cases theseaccords are extremely fragile and when "extreme violence disrupts the day-to-day life of a community and its residents" they are likely to collapse(Puntenney 146). It is common, for example, formothers to feel that while gang membership is "acceptable for a youngadolescent, it is inappropriate for an older adolescent or a young adult"(Puntenney 16 ). Indeed many of the housing project residents who were most setagainst gangs in both Venkatesh's and Puntenney's studies pointed out thatclose relatives of theirs had been gang members. The Council rapidly mobilized in the interest of the community andeasily gained its support--urging those who had never believed incountenancing the gangs into action as well. The Saints' powerderived from membership in a gang that was part of a larger organizationand from the willingness of the organization to resort to violence toimpose its will in the case of serious contests of its authority--especially in terms of its business. At the same time the Saints flourished and the four 'sets' of thegang at Blackstone had gained control of the entire area--some of it from arival gang, the Roaches. TheCouncil had engaged in a growing chorus of outrage at the criminaldomination of the community as they saw their own power diminish. He argued that conflict was perhaps the central processin social life and tended, as well, to argue primarily on the micro levelof analysis. And many tenants,despite misgivings, were willing to accept street gang money and in-kindsupport, such as safe escorts to grocery stores in the evenings. The self-policing by the Saints involved limiting their areas of operations,avoiding violence, and monitoring the truant behavior of younger gangmembers and out of this effort the Saints managed to produce a higher levelof safety in the Blackstone community. At this point the Councilwas clearly in possession of a reinvigorated set of cultural resources.The Council and its supporters had campaigned against gang domination andgang involvement in the community and this particular event, and thegeneral escalation of violence, ensured that their position was farstronger than it had been--with the Saints losing a great deal of statusfor the same reason. Gang membership,however, changed almost completely every 6 or 7 years as members aged andwithdrew, were more or less permanently incarcerated, or died. The gang's success would have generated more conflict, as Collinspoints out, except that the gang paid special attention to what the Councilmembers needed. Those with greater resources can "resist or evenmodify" the constraints created by these material factors while those withfewer resources "are more likely to have their thoughts and actionsdetermined by their material setting" (Ritzer 13 ). Works CitedCollins, Randall. Operating at anotherlevel, however, the conflict between the state and the gangs ensured thatthe residents had at least sufficient authority (via moral indignation aswell as the threat of publicity and appeal to the state) to elicit a levelof cooperation from the gang. In addition the gang's "underlying material generosity helpeddissuade residents from actively voicing their dissent" and this ensuredthat the accord between the Council and the gang was accepted--despite highlevels of ambiguity in the community over this perceived legitimation ofthe gang as a representative of the community's interests. The third point in Collins' theorizing was that when there isinequality of resources those with more are likely to exploit those withfewer. But they were ordered by the (mostly jailed)leadership of their larger organization to enter into the fray and promiseto police themselves as well as increase the amount of community support inwhich they engaged. The administration of the projecthad moved funds from maintenance to security needs and the representatives'power declined precipitously. They include: the idea that each social resource produces apotential conflict between haves and have-nots; the claim that "potentialconflicting interests become effective" in so far as they are mobilized incomparison with the mobilization of opposing interests; the concept thatconflict engenders subsequent conflict; and the idea that conflictsdeescalate as resources available for their pursuit are consumed (Collins289). Thus the Council was, once again, in the position of holding farfewer resources than the gang. Theconflict between these groups developed over a number of years and when itreached a climax with a sharp increase in violence and danger to residents,especially small children, the two groups developed an accord as the Saintstook the unprecedented step of entering into community affairs in order toensure that the conflict did not force a slowdown in their businessoperations. Implicit or explicit as these accords may be, they enableboth residents and gang members to attend to their business in an orderlyfashion, thus serving both sets of interests.
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