The Political Sense of Disruptive Interventions

Abstract

An increase of violent and uncivil behavior in urban youth culture is a recurrent topic of debate in Western European democracies such as France and the Netherlands¹ (Decker & Weerman 2005; De Jong 2007; Mohammed 2011). The habit of “making chaos” and recurrent violent clashes with the police in neighborhoods such as Grigny and Kanaleneiland are understood as being central to this development. Male adolescents with an immigrant background from such urban areas have gained a reputation of being antisocial and having an attitude which turns them away from society (Van den Brink 2002, 179–194).² For no apparent reason, these boys harass fellow inhabitants, destroy public property, cause a nuisance and clash with the police — or so it seems, if we follow reports about such seemingly senseless incidents of violence and incivility which dominate the media where youth with an immigrant background from “problem neighborhoods” are concerned (Corrado et al. 2002, v; Body-Gendrot 2005, 7). In the reception of such reports, the actions of small groups of youngsters gain a representative status for the image of larger groups of youngsters, who at first sight look and behave similarly to the initial troublemakers.