The Social Science Research Council, in collaboration with the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS), convened from December 9-11, 2004 a workshop on the theme, “Youth in Organized Violence: Comparing Contexts.” The goal of the meeting, held in Pretoria, South Africa, was to broaden understanding of the links between a vast range of issues regarding youth and organized violence—from participation in war and armed conflicts (including military and para-military groups) to organized forms of urban violence in gangs, protection rackets and street children organised around violent acts. Funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, it brought together scholars and field workers who carry out research in Australia, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Liberia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the USA, and Zimbabwe.

The workshop examined the role that organised forms of violence play in young people’s lives; developed new theoretical and analytical insights on the issue of youth in organised violence; and encouraged a comparative analysis of the various forms of organised violence in which young people are engaged, providing perspectives that might not otherwise occur when viewing these in isolation. Drawing directly from their own field research participants in the workshops provided careful considerations that analyzed the complexity of the relationship between youth and organized violence and the various factors that contribute to their involvement. Participants discussed, for example, how issues such as poverty influences youth’s involvement in violence in contexts as far-ranging as the Brazilian favelas, to youth gangs in the USA and Australia, and child soldiers in Sierra Leone, along with the prevalence of death squads and vigilantism in South Africa. These were compared with situations such as the circumstances of child soldiers in Colombia and Sri Lanka, and protection rackets in Nigeria, as well as transnational issues such as the export of gang culture from Los Angeles to El Salvador.

This project, of which this was the first workshop, focuses on the development of better understandings of the contexts in which youth create, instigate, and are inducted into organized forms of violence, especially the situations that enable these organizations to flourish and evolve. The workshop brought together scholars from various disciplines (anthropology, psychology, criminal justice, sociology, war and conflict studies, political science, economy) conducting studies on youth and organised forms of violence. The idea is to develop discussions and analysis across various contexts in which young people are engaged in organised violence and to develop new insights and knowledge that will help improve the social sciences’ understandings of the connections between youth and organised forms of violence. A second workshop is scheduled for 2005. For more information, please contact Ezra Simon at cac@ssrc.org.