Dissolving borders: Reframing risk,delinquent peers,and youth violence

Although “association with delinquent peers” is commonly identified as “a risk factor for youth violence,” this framework leads us to blame individuals and ignore the complex lives of youth who face state, symbolic, and interpersonal violence. This study is based on interviews with young adults about their adolescence in a low-income immigrant gateway neighborhood of Oakland, California. Most of the interviewees have peer networks that are racially/ethnically diverse and also include both delinquent and conforming peers. We show that having these “doubly diverse” friendship networks helps youth move through their neighborhood safely and feel anchored to their community even when they leave to attend college. Even successful youth in our study do not erect borders between themselves and “delinquent peers.” It is easy to assign blame to youth for their friendships, their violent behavior, their lack of education, their unstable and low-paying jobs, but this calculus ignores both the structural factors that constrain youth choices and the benefits that seem to be linked to diverse friendships, even with delinquent peers. Growing up in a site of global capital accumulation and disinvestment in the era of neoliberalism, our interviewees challenge us to reframe risk.     

日本化学家获诺贝尔奖的社会背景

概述了2000-2002年间三位荣获诺贝尔奖的日本化学家的经历及其研究态度以及他们各自获奖的研究内容和意义,考察了产生这些划时代研究成果的社会背景--尤其是教育与研究环境.为了做出划时代的发现和发明,虽然需要研究者个人的"意外发现"能力,但是,要培养具有这种能力的人才,则需要发展重视个性的教育;要充分发挥这种能力,还需要在精神、时间和经济等方面具备充裕的条件.现在,日本几乎失去了在二战后的某一时期曾经具备的这种教育与研究环境,考察了失去这些环境条件的社会因素.