In Views from the Streets, Aspholm brings research on Chicago gangs into the twenty-first century where social media, cell phones, and an unabashed sense of individualism and democracy have brought about the demise of the city's once monolithic corporate gangs. Aspholm's nuanced study provides a new--and much needed--theoretical lens on contemporary gang life that will set the stage for a new generation of gang scholars.--Andrew Papachristos, Northwestern University
In this path-breaking book, Roberto R. Aspholm reminds us that our understandings of contemporary gang culture remain mired in nostalgia and urban legend. Views from the Streets provides an unprecedented look at the new social dynamics resulting from public housing demolitions, displacement, and pervasive carceral control. It is indispensable reading for anyone wishing to understand contemporary gangs and for all who hope to end urban violence.--Cedric Johnson, author of Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics
The most important book on Chicago gangs in decades, Views from the Streets vividly describes how and why African American gangs in Chicago fractured and radically transformed. In recounting this story, Roberto R. Aspholm gives voice to the anguished cries of young men trying desperately to create meaning in impossible conditions.--John Hagedorn, author of A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and Gangsta Culture
Aspholm dares to tell a complex and layered story of life in Chicago. By dismissing the commonplace deficit-based narratives on Black life in street organizations (gangs), readers are challenged to confront the residual affects of disinvestment and displacement. Instead of a 'gang problem, ' Chicago has a white supremacy problem rooted in tactics of fracture, isolation, marginalization, and containment.--David Stovall, University of Illinois at Chicago
I am very excited about Views from the Streets. It addresses central questions in contemporary gang research: What's going on in Chicago? Why have the highly touted interventions there had little effect? Why are there so many killings? It does so by offering what is deeply needed but rarely accomplished in this field: a grounded analysis providing a convincing, cogent understanding of local history and social dynamics. Moreover and most refreshingly, it appreciates rather than ironicizes and pathologizes the voices of gang members. This is the book I've been waiting for: a nuanced explanation that matters.--Robert Garot, author of Who You Claim: Performing Gang Identity in School and on the Streets