@article{ref1,
title="Living in the shadow of death: gangs, violence and social order in urban Nicaragua, 1996-2002",
journal="Journal of Latin American studies",
year="2006",
author="Rodgers, Dennis",
volume="38",
number="2",
pages="267-292",
abstract="This article explores the dynamics of the youth gang (pandilla) phenomenon in contemporary urban Nicaragua, drawing on longitudinal ethnographic research conducted with a Managua pandilla in 1996-97 and in 2002. Pandillas and their violent practices are conceived as constituting a form of local social structuration in the face of broader conditions of high crime, insecurity, and socio-political breakdown. This form of 'street-level politics' changed significantly between 1997 and 2002, however, evolving from a form of collective social violence to a more individually and economically motivated type of brutality. This transformation is related to wider structural processes, which are described as coming together and precipitating a form of 'social death' in contemporary Nicaragua.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0022-216X",
doi="10.1017/S0022216X0600071X",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X0600071X"
}