From Gangs to Bands. Transformations of the Gang Violence in Slums in Cali

Abstract

This article points out some features and raises some hypothesis on the recent transformationof the urban conflict in Cali (Colombia). It follows the transformation processfrom the entry of young people from gangs to criminal bands. It is based on interviewswith gang members from neighborhoods Marroquín in Aguablanca and Alfonso López,community leaders and a member of a criminal band. It is about observing how this phenomenoncauses changes in the cultural ethos of gangs: transformations in the way inwhich inhabit their territory, their use of time, motivations and reasons given for violence;and, changes the type of emotional configuration -modeling of emotions and feelingssocialand psychological (Elias, 1990); which adapts to a progressive rationalization ofviolence. The central thesis is that gang violence mutates in the direction of progressiveinstrumentation, a utilitarian rationality also molding their psychology.