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‘It Wasnae Just Easterhouse’: The Politics of Representation in the Glasgow Gang Phenomenon, c. 1965–1975

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Youth Culture and Social Change

Abstract

In this chapter, we revisit the politics of representation in the Glasgow gang phenomenon, c. 1965–1975, as a means of drawing attention to the historical antecedents to these recent debates. In so doing we seek to draw attention to the variability in gang research – according to methodological approach, epistemological underpinning and geographical context – and the frequent lack of reflexivity in debate. Like the parable of the blind men and the elephant, where each felt a different part and thought they had discovered its true essence, these debates are too often partial and blinkered. Here we re-examine the work of James Patrick, Gail Armstrong and Mary Wilson, discussing the valuable distinctions between them, and reflecting on their significance for understanding the gang phenomenon in Glasgow (and elsewhere). We also explore not just what they can tell us about young people’s identities, but also about the role of the researchers themselves in shaping and constructing understandings of youth subcultures.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A. Davies, ‘Glasgow’s “reign of terror”: Street gangs, racketeering and intimidation in the 1920s and 1930s’, Contemporary British History 21(4) (2007), 406 (Davies 2007).

  2. 2.

    Glasgow Herald, 7 June 1968.

  3. 3.

    A. Bartie, ‘Moral panics and Glasgow gangs: Exploring ‘the new wave of Glasgow hooliganism’, 1965–1970’, Contemporary British History, 24(3) (2010), 385–408 (Bartie 2010).

  4. 4.

    J. Patrick, A Glasgow Gang Observed (London, 1973) (Patrick 1973).

  5. 5.

    G. Armstrong and M. Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, in I. Taylor and L. Taylor (eds.), Politics and Deviance: Papers from the National Deviance Conference (Middlesex, 1973) (Armstrong and Wilson 1973a).

  6. 6.

    See, for example, debates in B. Goldson, Youth in Crisis? ‘Gangs’, Territoriality and Violence (Abingdon, 2011) (Goldson 2011).

  7. 7.

    W. B. Sanders, Gangbangs and Drive-Bys: Grounded Culture and Juvenile Gang Violence (New York, 1994), p. 8 (Sanders 1994).

  8. 8.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, p. 123; P. Donnelly ‘Evaluating gang rehabilitation and violence reduction in Glasgow’s East End’, Presentation to 18th UKPHA Annual Public Health Forum, Bournemouth International Conference Centre, 24–25 March 2010 (Donnelly 2010).

  9. 9.

    For more on housing, see, for example, M. Glendinning (ed.), Rebuilding Scotland: The Postwar Vision, 1945–1975 (East Linton, 1995) (Glendinning 1995).

  10. 10.

    G. Noble, ‘In defence of Easterhouse’, New Society 20 (1970), 328 (Noble 1970).

  11. 11.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, p. 67.

  12. 12.

    For a discussion of this evidence, see Bartie, ‘Moral panics and Glasgow gangs’, 385–408.

  13. 13.

    These issues are examined in Bartie, ‘Moral panics and Glasgow gangs’.

  14. 14.

    Glasgow Herald, 10 January 1966.

  15. 15.

    Mitchell Library (Glasgow) Archives and Special Collections (ML-ASC), SR22/40/16, Report of the Chief Constable of the City of Glasgow for the Year 1965, p. 7 (Mitchell Library 1965).

  16. 16.

    Glasgow Herald, 26 April 1966.

  17. 17.

    For more on Vaughan, see, for example, Denis Gifford’s obituary of him in The Independent, 17 September 1999.

  18. 18.

    This episode caused some controversy; with claims made that gang fights had been staged. See, for example, Scottish Daily Express, 6 June 1968.

  19. 19.

    Glasgow Herald, 12 July 1968.

  20. 20.

    Daily Record, 12 July 1968. Note: Vaughan was not present but in Bournemouth as part of his tour.

  21. 21.

    For more on the Easterhouse Project, see A. Bartie and A. Fraser, ‘The Easterhouse Project: Youth, social justice and the arts in Glasgow, 1968–1970’, Scottish Justice Matters, 2(1) (2014), 38–9 (Bartie and Fraser 2010).

  22. 22.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang; G. Armstrong and M. Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’; G. Armstrong and M. Wilson, ‘Delinquency and some aspects of housing’, in C. Ward (ed.), Vandalism (London, 1973) (Armstrong and Wilson 1973b).

  23. 23.

    It is now widely known that James Patrick was, in fact, Frank Coffield, an education researcher (now retired). See, for example, J. Murray, ‘Just suppose this man ran education’, InTuition, 8 (2012), 8–9 (Murray 2012).

  24. 24.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, p. 9.

  25. 25.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, p. 13.

  26. 26.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, pp. 13–17.

  27. 27.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, p. 9.

  28. 28.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, pp. 17–26.

  29. 29.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, p. 25.

  30. 30.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, p. 36.

  31. 31.

    A ‘gemmie’ is a ‘hardman’ in local parlance; to be ‘gemme’ is to demonstrate the ability to both stand up for yourself and to be able to handle yourself; a ‘boay’ is a local word for boy. Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, pp. 27–45.

  32. 32.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, pp. 135–9.

  33. 33.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, p. 154.

  34. 34.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, pp. 178 and 200; L. Yablonsky, The Violent Gang (New York, 1962) (Yablonsky 1962).

  35. 35.

    See, for example, H. Becker, Outsiders (New York, 1963) (Becker 1963); D. Matza, Delinquency and Drift (New York, 1964) (Matza 1964).

  36. 36.

    See S. Winlow, ‘The National Deviancy Symposia’, in R. Wright (ed), Criminology (Oxford, 2014) (Winlow 2014).

  37. 37.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, pp. 157 and 164. In 1966, the sociologist David M. Downes had argued in his influential study of youth in the Stepney and Poplar boroughs of London that there was no evidence of US-style gangs: ‘observation and information combined point to the absence of delinquent gangs in the East End, except as a thoroughly atypical activity’. D.M. Downes, The Delinquent Solution: A Study in Subcultural Theory (London, 1966), p. 198 (Downes 1966).

  38. 38.

    Glasgow Herald, 17 February 1973. Archie Hind was the first Assistant Secretary of the Easterhouse Project (1969–70).

  39. 39.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, p. 9.

  40. 40.

    See, for example, A. Bryman, Social Research Methods (Oxford, 2004) (Bryman 2004); G. Pearson, ‘The researcher as hooligan: Where “participant” observation means breaking the law’, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 12(3) (2009), 243–55 (Pearson 2009).

  41. 41.

    The Times, 16 February 1973; Daily Record, 5 February 1973.

  42. 42.

    S. Damer, Glasgow: Going for a Song (London, 1990), p. 203 (Damer 1990).

  43. 43.

    Daily Record, 14 February 1973.

  44. 44.

    J. Patrick, A Glasgow Gang Observed (Castle Douglas, 2013) (Patrick 2013).

  45. 45.

    Armstrong and Wilson had included a note stating ‘A more detailed treatment of some of the themes on this paper may be found in G. ARMSTRONG and M. WILSON (George Allen & Unwin, forthcoming). Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, p. 89.

  46. 46.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘Delinquency and some aspects of housing’, p. 73.

  47. 47.

    Wilkins, cited in J. Young, The Drugtakers: The Social Meaning of Drug Use (London, 1973), p. 108 (Young 1973).

  48. 48.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, p. 74.

  49. 49.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, p. 62.

  50. 50.

    This project, ‘Narratives of Glasgow: Oral histories of youth gangs in Easterhouse, c. 1965–1975’, was supported by a British Academy Small Grant (summer 2011). A smaller pilot study, ‘Narratives of Glasgow: Oral histories of gangs in 1960s Easterhouse’ was conducted by Susan Batchelor, Angela Bartie and Alistair Fraser, and funded by the University of Glasgow Adam Smith Research Foundation Seedcorn Fund (2010).

  51. 51.

    We have written a piece exploring Danny’s memories and experiences in relation to the stereotype of the ‘hard man’ in the ‘violent city’. See A. Bartie and A. Fraser, ‘Speaking to the “hard” men: masculinities, violence and youth gangs in Glasgow, c.1965–75’, in L. Abrams and E. Ewan, Nine Centuries of Man: Manhood and Masculinity in Scottish History (Edinburgh, 2017) (Bartie and Fraser 2017).

  52. 52.

    Interview with Danny McCall, 7 July 2011.

  53. 53.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘The history of a delinquent area’, Paper given at National Deviancy Symposium, University of York, April 1970 (original copy of paper given to us by Gail Armstrong).

  54. 54.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘Delinquency and some aspects of housing’, p. 76.

  55. 55.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, p. 67.

  56. 56.

    Noble, ‘In defence of Easterhouse’, 328–9.

  57. 57.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, p. 62.

  58. 58.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, p. 81.

  59. 59.

    M. Wilson, ‘A Glasgow Gang Observed’ (Book Review), The British Journal of Criminology, 13(4) (1973), 411 (Wilson 1973).

  60. 60.

    Armstrong, ‘A Glasgow Gang Observed’ (Book Review), ‘Sociology further notices’ (undated, (circa 1973) photocopy of review given to us by Gail Armstrong).

  61. 61.

    Glasgow Herald, 5 February 1973.

  62. 62.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, p. 88.

  63. 63.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, p. 79.

  64. 64.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, pp. 78–80.

  65. 65.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘The history of a delinquent area’.

  66. 66.

    Glasgow Herald, 5 February 1973.

  67. 67.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘City politics and deviancy amplification’, p. 74.

  68. 68.

    Sheptycki and Edwards, cited in B. Goldson, Youth in Crisis?, p. 17.

  69. 69.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘Delinquency and some aspects of housing’, p. 75.

  70. 70.

    C. Alexander and B. Goldson cited in A. Fraser, ‘Street habitus: Gangs, territorialism and social change in Glasgow’, Journal of Youth Studies, 16(8) (2013), 971 (Fraser 2013).

  71. 71.

    See, for example, Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency Scottish Branch: Glasgow Working Party, ‘The carrying of offensive weapons’, British Journal of Criminology, 10(3) (1970), 255–69 (Institute for the Study and Treatment of Delinquency Scottish Branch 1970). For a fuller discussion, see Bartie, ‘Moral panics and Glasgow gangs’, 385–408.

  72. 72.

    Armstrong and Wilson, ‘Delinquency and some aspects of housing’, pp. 66–7.

  73. 73.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, p. 157.

  74. 74.

    For a more detailed discussion, see Fraser, Urban Legends.

  75. 75.

    Patrick, A Glasgow Gang, p. 154.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    Angela Bartie

  2. University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Alistair Fraser

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  1. Angela Bartie
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  2. Alistair Fraser
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Correspondence to Angela Bartie .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Wolverhampton , Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

    Keith Gildart

  2. University of Roehampton, London, United Kingdom

    Anna Gough-Yates

  3. Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Sian Lincoln

  4. London Metropolitan University , LONDON, United Kingdom

    Bill Osgerby

  5. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

    Lucy Robinson

  6. University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom

    John Street

  7. University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom

    Peter Webb

  8. University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

    Matthew Worley

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Bartie, A., Fraser, A. (2017). ‘It Wasnae Just Easterhouse’: The Politics of Representation in the Glasgow Gang Phenomenon, c. 1965–1975. In: Gildart, K., et al. Youth Culture and Social Change. Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52911-4_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52911-4_9

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