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Discursive Representations of Young People in the Beetham Gardens:
Marginalization, Discourses and Governmentality
A Research Paper presented by:
Aleisha HolderTrinidad and Tobago
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for obtaining the degree of
MASTERS OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Specialization:
Children and Youth Studies(CYS)
Members of the Examining Committee:
Roy HuijsmansKristen Cheney
1
The Hague, The NetherlandsDecember 2012
2
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List of Acronyms
CAO Community Action Officer
CAC Community Action Council
CSO Central Statistical Office
CSP Citizen Security Programme
CYS Community and Youth Specialist
IDB Inter American Development Bank
ILO International Labour Organization
ISS Institute of Social Studies
LAC Latin America and the Caribbean
MLI Making Life Important
PBR Priority Bus Route
P-O-S Port-Of-Spain
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Abstract
“At risk” youth has become a buzzword within the international arena for several years.
However, this term has only gained momentum within Trinidad and Tobago since 2008 upon the
introduction of the Citizen Security Programme (CSP); a programme partially funded by the Inter
American Development Bank. This programme specifically targets those living in “high needs”
communities such as “at risk” youth.
In this paper I argue that that this label, when deconstructed presents an image of young males
who are prone to violence, crime and delinquency. This image becomes highly problematic
when these young men live in an already marginalized community. The intersection of
marginalization because of location together with age and gender can have potential harmful
effects such as resulting in increased surveillance of this group.
Relevance to Development Studies
Within the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region and more notably in the Caribbean,
development policies and interventions targeting young people are using the terminology of
risk. This discourse of youth “at risk” is seldom problematized and continues to be applied to
young people and more particularly, to young men, throughout the region. The views of the
young people themselves in relation to discourses such as these are also underrepresented.
Thus, I hope to contribute to the global literature on this topic highlighting the experience
emerging from the Trinidad and Tobago context. With no attempt to make generalizations for
the Caribbean experience, it is hoped nonetheless, that this research will spark further
investigation into the dominant youth discourses and constructions within the Caribbean
region.
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Keywords
Discourse; “at risk” youth; marginalization; spatial segregation; citizen security; Inter American
Development Bank; Beetham Gardens; governmentality; Latin America; Caribbean; Citizen
Security Programme.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my family: Irene, Ayanna, Allyson, Andy and Lincoln for their incredible
support throughout this process. You have been patient with my late nights, have read
numerous drafts of this research paper, taken photographs and kept me sane for the past few
months. Thank you for your prayers and love and for taking this journey with me.
I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor who has tirelessly championed my cause,
and who determinedly caused me to question every bit of data, my reasoning and thought
processes (even until the last moment!). His dedication to ensuring that I was fair and balanced
all helped me greatly in getting to this final product. You have been a great help and great guide
and ensured that I always did my best.
To my friends in the Hague; Vera, Preeti, Catalina, Thandi and Sandra, my soul sisters, thank you
for your undeniable support, for the lovely RP chats, for your useful comments, the pressure
groups and for always being great cheerleaders.
A big thank you to all of my research participants without whom this research paper would not
have been possible. Thank you for being honest and open and allowing me into your
community, workspace and lives. I hope that this research paper will shed some light on the
current situation as I understand it.
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Contents
List of Acronyms 2
Abstract 4
Relevance to Development Studies 4
Acknowledgements 5
Introduction 8
Chapter 1: Locating the research: The Beetham Gardens 11
The Beetham Gardens: A Marginalized Community. 12
Chapter 2: Methodology: Researching ‘At Risk Youth’ 22
Methods: Data Collection 23
Positionality: My Role as Researcher 28
Chapter 3: Discursive Representations of young men in the Beetham Gardens. 34
Who is an “at risk” youth’? 38
Chapter 4: Effects of the “at risk” discourse. 48
Technologies of Governance 48
Partial Reality 50
Young People’s relative powerlessness. 57
Conclusions 60
References 62
APPENDIX 1 66
APPENDIX 2 68
List of Figures
Figure 1.0- Research Question and Sub Questions....................................................................................20
List of Photographs
Photograph 1.0 sign depicting Beetham Gardens view from Highway…………………………………………………..10
Photograph 2.0 protest aftermath on PBR in 2006…………………………………………………………………………….....14
Photograph 3.0 showing the view of the wall from the highway…………………………………………………………...16
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Photograph 4.0 depicting the length of the wall……………………………………………………………………………………17
Photograph 5.0 depicting the length of the wall……………………………………………………………………………………17
List of Tables
Table 1.0 indicating participants for qualitative interview……………………………………………………………..........24
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Introduction
In this paper I critically interrogate the ‘at risk’ discourse underpinning many development
interventions concerning youth. The focus is on Trinidad and Tobago, and more specifically on
youth from the Beetham Gardens, an area which can be said to be marginalized due to the
intersection of a series of geographical, historical, economic and socio-political relations.
In this paper, I show how the label of “at risk”, groups together young men from this
community as particularly prone to crime and delinquency; it identifies deficits within the
young men’s character which makes them so proned and which results in the legitimate
introduction of preventative policy interventions. As Kelly (2001:24) argues “discourses of youth
at risk are framed by the idea that youth should be a transition from normal childhood to
normal adulthood”. These interventions are meant to allow these young men to change
themselves and their situations, make better choices and to follow the path to normativity once
again.
The difficulty of this however is that it totally obscures the fact that these young men come
from a context where they already experience processes of marginalization because of where
they come from. Furthermore, it conceals wider macro-structural processes which may be
affecting these young men’s position in society.
The Beetham Gardens is distinguished from the rest of Trinidad due to its history of labeling,
stereotyping and neglect from the state and represents an “other” within the society. Therefore
implementing more programmes for “at risk” youth without failing to address these already
existing issues will be counter-productive and will only have negative effects on these young
men from this community.
This paper doesn’t attempt to dismiss the fact that some young men do participate in criminal
activities but rather seeks to problematize the “at risk” discourse, the policy which enforces it
and its implications for young men who originate from a context where they may already face
challenges.
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I therefore ask and hopefully answer How do discourses of risk, particularly the label of “at
risk” impact upon the lives of young men from a marginalized community, the Beetham
Gardens?
To answer this question I explore the history and emergence of the Beetham Gardens as a
community; the constructions of youth both locally and globally, the discursive underpinnings
of the “at risk” rhetoric and most importantly how young people in the Beetham Gardens
perceive themselves and how they think the wider society perceives them.
Chapter 1 of this paper locates my research within the context of Trinidad and Tobago and
more specifically, the Beetham Gardens. This investigation of context reveals the stimulus for
doing research within this community and for my research questions. Chapter 2 presents a
detailed exploration of my methodology and the ethical challenges faced during research.
In chapters 3 and 4, I focus on the potential pitfalls of this discourse of risk and label of “at risk”.
I begin by deconstructing the label and then turn my attention to how this label results in
homogeneity, individualization of risk and increased surveillance of young men. I present a
different view of the “at risk” label and how it may not be viewed as dangerous depending on
who is looking. I take the discussion further to include the experiences of the young men which
are usually lost as a result of the label of “at risk” and I explore notions of power.
In the Caribbean literature on issues surrounding young people there is an under-
representation of the views of the young people to whom this label is affixed. Therefore a
common thread in all of my chapters is the presentation of the views of the young men who
live in this community; views which are presented in the local vernacular of the country as I
didn’t want to interfere with my participants’ expressions and I wanted to present their views in
as an authentic manner as possible.
In my concluding section, I summarize the main evidential points and arguments as explored in
chapters 1-4. Here – I link the processes of marginalization of the Beetham Gardens as a place
and how the “at risk” label affects young men from that community.
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In studying the Beetham Gardens, my research focuses on a deprived and marginalized
community with its own history and social problems. However, I believe that the issues
explored in the lived experiences of young men in this community may be relevant to the study
of other young men from marginalized communities whether it be within the East Port-Of-Spain
regions or at a global level.
Chapter 1: Locating the research: The Beetham Gardens
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Photo 1.0 of the Beetham Gardens (view from the Highway)1
This chapter identifies the several processes which contribute to the marginalization of the
Beetham Gardens as a community. I do this by briefly highlighting the wider context of Trinidad
and Tobago and then identifying the specific history of the Beetham Gardens. In photograph 1.0
the welcome sign identifying the community can be seen from the highway which is placed on
the wall running along the community (a process of spatial segregation which will be explored
later on in this chapter).
Trinidad and Tobago is a twin Island Republic and is the southernmost Caribbean island, nestled
close to Venezuela. The two islands, Trinidad and Tobago became incorporated into a single
colony in 1888, however despite being a twin island Republic the focus of my research will be
1 Photograph courtesy Lincoln Holder for the purposes of this research.
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on a specific community within Trinidad and not Tobago. This is for practical reasons, being that
although Trinidad and Tobago are one country, discourses of crime and violence vary between
them, with more emphasis usually being placed on Trinidad and not Tobago. Further to this
Trinidad is my home and the context of Beetham Gardens is more familiar to me.
The country has a long history of slavery, indentureship, social inequalities based on race, class
and colonialism, only achieving its independence from Britain in 1962, some 50 years ago. In
20102 the population of Trinidad and Tobago stood at 1,317,714 people, with 261,438 persons
between the ages of 15-24 (Central Statistical Office, CSO) and the dominant ethnicities being
Afro-Trinidadian (persons of African descent) and Indo-Trinidadian (persons of Indian descent).
The Beetham Gardens: A Marginalized Community.
“Life on the margins is made it is not natural(Wyn and White 1997:123)
Marginalization can be defined as processes by which access to means of production is limited
or impeded; there is limited or diminished access to decision making, distributional processes
and policies, services and benefits due to position in the social structure (my emphasis) and
marginalized persons are either excluded from participating in the productive process or their
contribution is appropriated (Kuitenbrouwer, 1973:9). Wyn and White take this definition
further by indicating that marginalization refers to aspects of life experiences through which
inequality is structured (Wyn & White, 1997:121). Wyn and White (1997:121) also make
reference to the characteristics of those who are marginalized as including, residing in the
poorest housing estates, having limited or meager income, persons being compelled by market
forces to sell their labour but are restricted from doing so, due to structural inequalities.
2 This is the most up to date data from the Central Statistical Office and is based on the 2000 Census.
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The notions that inclusion or exclusion from full participation within society depends on
position within the social structure and that inequalities can be institutionalized within social
structures are relevant for our purposes here.
The Beetham Gardens can be considered as existing in the lower echelons of Trinidadian 3
society. This low status has been due to several systematic processes and characteristics which
are explored herein and which contribute to their diminished access to services and to the
decision making sphere. Further to this, the marginalization of Beetham Gardens has resulted in
impediments to fully entering the labour market.
The Beetham Gardens is located in South East Port-Of-Spain (P-O-S), Trinidad, immediately
outside of the administrative centre of the city. It is bounded by two major roadways which
lead into the capital city; the Beetham Highway (“the Highway”) runs alongside the community
and is one of the main points of entry for motorists from East and Central Trinidad into
Northern Trinidad. On the other side of the community is the Priority Bus Route (PBR) which is
the main roadway for public transportation into the city. Since thousands of commuters use
these roadways to enter into P-O-S on a daily basis, the community of the Beetham Gardens is
highly visible to wider society – yet it remains highly marginalized.
Previously known as Beetham Estate and now called the Beetham Gardens, this community was
born in the 1970’s as a resettlement community for those who lost their homes in other
surrounding areas of the city due to a fire, as well as for those who lived in informal settlements
on the outskirts of the capital city (Cambridge, 2003:6). The community was a project of the
government to regularize housing at that time and is a relatively ‘young’ one in terms of its
existence and is still comprised of persons who initially moved into the housing settlement in
the 1970’s.
According to the CSP the area is also considered as comprising of low to middle income families
(CSP website, 2009) thus having lower economic status within the society. This is compounded
by the fact that this area has been identified by the CSP as a site for violence and criminal
3 Trinidadian is the term for a person who comes from Trinidad.
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activity. There are certain characteristics of the Beetham Gardens which contribute to its low
status and low social position within Trinidad and these are explored below.
The Environment
The Beetham Gardens is plagued with environmental problems since it is situated between an
industrial site (on which an alcohol distillery is located) and one of the national landfill sites
which fails to dispose of the waste in a sanitary way. Waste is disposed of improperly and
results in a foul smell engulfing the entire area, including the highway and the community.
Consequently, the stench, which can be smelled by commuters, is usually attributed to
‘Beetham people’ by the wider public.
Political Action
The community is frequently featured in newspaper and television news stories, and due to its
visibility by the wider public it is discussed quite often. The Beetham Gardens is also well known
for its political action, which usually manifests in protesting and blocking of the highway with
debris. Two protests have already taken place this year on May 24 th 2012 and June 28th 20124.
Protesting in this manner, has the effect of disrupting the traffic flow into the capital city. A
usual scene of the aftermath of protests is depicted in Photograph 2.0 below which was taken
at a protest in 2006.
Photograph 2.0- Protest Aftermath on the PBR in 20064 Further information about the protests can be found on these links http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/_Beetham_residents_stage_protest_over_police_raid-124752329.html and http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Beetham_residents_block_highway_in_fiery_protest-153888065.html .
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Photo courtesy of The Trinidad Guardian5.
The main requests during the protests were for employment for young people; to denounce
purported police brutality and oppression as well as indicating dissatisfaction with the state’s
treatment of the community. Two of my young participants confirmed taking part in the most
recent protest and when asked about this protest action, Rex, a 19 year old male from the
community said the following:
“dem (them) fellas block road and […] we get work normal …. When the people
fighting for their rights when they block that road nobody can’t pass… they come
and ask what allyuh (all of you) want… we does get they attention and get work
… one time, opportunity one time.”
(Quote from Interview 1 on 27/08/2012with Rex6)
What Rex is stating here is that one of the ways residents gain improved access to benefits of
employment policies is by protesting and blocking the roadways with debris. In this way their
demands are almost immediately met by those in the decision making sphere. This can be
interpreted as the resident’s inability to access those in power in other more normative ways
and this as Kuitenbrouwer (1973:9) has indicated is a feature of marginalization.
Spatial Segregation
In Trinidad, like in most other countries, where a person lives is one marker of affluence and
status within society. The colonial past means that spatial segregation has therefore been part
of its history, based on race and colour and more recently on income and class (Mycoo,
2005:135). Numerous oil booms and failure to redistribute wealth in Trinidad during the 1960’s
led to increased inequality and resulted in Black Power Riots in the 1970’s. After the riots, the
government responded by subsidizing and regularizing housing and other social services
5 Link to the online story and photograph can be found here http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2006-08-11/news6.html . . I could not locate photographs of the most recent protests.6 Pseudonyms are used for my young participants.
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(Mycoo, 2005:136-137). In a study on gated communities within Trinidad, Mycoo notes that the
ones that reside in gated communities in the West of Port-of Spain represent the more affluent
and upper-middle classes of Trinidad (2005: 138).
The “West” in Trinidad, which is actually the Western part of P-O-S is the pinnacle of wealth
and status and usually connotes images of socio-economic status and affluence. On the
contrary, the East of P-O-S, where the Beetham Gardens is located, conjures images
diametrically opposed to those of the “West”. East P-O-S evokes images of lower socio-
economic status, poverty and high levels of crime.
Location therefore becomes an important difference in the Trinidadian context. When asked
about the obstacles and barriers that young people in the Beetham Gardens face, Abinta Clarke
the Community Action Officer (CAO) with the CSP for the area indicated that their geographic
location was one such barrier,
just the idea that they [are] in the East Port of Spain area which comprises of
Laventille and which has had a stigma from 1970 all the way back …they live next
to a dump. If I live in a community where the environment doesn’t seem friendly
at all…. if I have to wake up every morning and there’s a stench...I grow up in
that, my children grow up in that, my great grandchildren grow up in that, it says
something , it makes them feel like they [are] not moving
(Quote from Interview with Abinta, 29/08/2012)
Location therefore becomes a difference which can be identified by those from other
communities within Trinidad and even those within the Beetham Gardens. All but one of my
young participants indicated a strong desire to leave the Beetham Gardens when they could
afford to do so. Joseph, a 21 year old male indicated that once you attained a certain level in
life, you have to “get out”7. The Beetham Gardens was a place to leave so that he could seek
better opportunities and a better life somewhere.
7 Notes taken from interview on 27/08/2012
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But, further to location being an issue, there has been actual spatial stratification of this
community. In 2008, a wall, dubbed as the “wall of shame” (Hassannali, 2008) was constructed
by the National Government along the entire community on the side which is bounded by the
Highway (see photographs 4.0 and 5.0 which gives an idea of the length of the wall). Although
the wall does not obscure the entire community, trees were planted on mounds in front of the
wall which have the effect of obscuring certain parts of the community from the view of those
who pass along the highway. Photograph 3.0 shows the view of the wall from the Highway.
Photograph 3.0 showing the view of the wall
and the trees planted on mounds in front of the wall from the highway8.
8 Photos courtesy Lincoln Holder for the purposes of this research.
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Photograph 4.0 depicting the length of the wall.
Photograph 5.0 depicting the length of the wall.
Photographs 4.0 and 5.0 gave an indication of the length of this wall which runs along the
community and the visibility of this community due to its proximity to the highway which could
be seen in photographs 3.0 and 5.0.
The wall’s construction began around 2008 and coincided with the Summit of the Americas and
the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting which was hosted by the Trinidad and
Tobago government in 2009 and was termed as a beautification drive by government officials. A
more obvious interpretation would be that it was perhaps an attempt to hide the galvanized9
houses which did not represent Trinidad as the economically thriving city it purports to be. This
wall led to outrage on a local and international level but still remains.
This wall can be deemed as blatant spatial segregation of the community from the wider society
and a clear example of the ‘horrific treatment’ referred to by Link and Phelan (2001:370) which
is legitimized when there exists labeling, stereotyping and differentiation between groups of
“them” and “us”. The Beetham Gardens is the ‘other’ in this context of Trinidadian society.
9 Galvanize is a type of material usually used for roofing of homes and can be seen in photographs 3.1 and 3.2.
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How urban space is organized is reflective of how different social groups relate to each other;
their differentiation and separation (Caldeira 1996:55). Although Caldeira speaks primarily of
the fortified enclaves of the rich in Sao Paolo, the underlying rationale is still applicable to the
Beetham Gardens.
The wall is a reflection of the type of interaction between the different factions of society and is
a result of the processes of systematic marginalization of the people who live there. According
to Mac Donald and Marsh (2005:166) who discuss the ways that inequalities are structured
through the local housing market in a UK neighbourhood, these spatial processes serve to
‘widen and harden local social divisions between the included and excluded’. Processes such as
that and the actual building of a wall can be viewed as ways through which inequality become
clearly visible at the ground level.
Although aware of the implications of the wall, a tension is revealed when the participants were
asked about how they view it. One participant, Rex, explains
they trying to hide what them (the government) make ...they trying to hide the
ghetto community which them have so ….it was them job in the first place to see
about it not because of summit or somebody coming they want to make sure it
look nice…that is not right
(Quote from Interview 1 on 27/08/2012 with Rex, 19, male)
His neighbour and an interview participant, Joseph (21, male) added however that the wall
meant nothing; that those who were upset about the construction of the wall were then hired
to complete its construction and so were happy that they were employed10.
This tension between satisfying one’s economic needs while further contributing to the active
spatial marginalization of your own community reveals some of the complexities of this
community. The need for employment and for economic independence resulted in residents
effectively reinforcing the marginalization of their own community.
10 Notes from interview with Joseph, 27/08/2012.
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As outlined above, the conclusion can be drawn that the Beetham Gardens as a community is
marginalized. The community has a low status within the wider context of Trinidad and Tobago
which is contributed to by its environment and its location. There are indications of limited
access to services and to decision making on issues which affect young people such as’ youth
unemployment’.
Certain processes such as the building of the wall reproduce the marginalization of this
community. This reproduction of processes of marginality, are known to my participants and
although in some instances they tend to reinforce it (by building the wall) they also try to resist
it (political action). However next to such spectacular forms of agency, the marginalization of
the Beetham Gardens is reproduced and experienced through a range of everyday experiences
which is explored in the following chapters in much more detail.
In the chapter 3, I show how marginalization of the community is reproduced and the
marginalization of young men is produced through the CSP and its label of “at risk”. Young men
are specifically targeted and attention is drawn to them as “at risk” youth, linking them all to
crime and delinquency.
It is in this context that my research question arises: How do discourses of risk, particularly the
label of “at risk” impact upon the lives of young men from a marginalized community, the
Beetham Gardens?
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I ask: who is an “at risk youth”? What does this label
imply and why does it matter? How does this label
affect young men from this community? What is
excluded when we frame young people as “at risk”?
However, before I fully explore the implications of
the CSP and the rhetoric of risk, in chapter 2 I identify
the methodology used to answer the research
question and sub questions as seen in Figure 1.0.
Chapter 2: Methodology: Researching ‘At Risk Youth’
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Research Question: How do
discourses of risk, particularly the
label of “at risk” impact upon the
lives of young men from a
marginalized community, the
Beetham Gardens?
Sub questions:
Who is an “at risk” youth ?
What does this label imply? Why does it matter?
How does this label affect young men from this community?
What is excluded when we frame young men as “at risk” ?
Figure 1.0- Research Question
and Sub Questions
My two main methodological approaches for this research are ethnography and discourse
analysis. As indicated by Huijsmans (2010:53) ethnography can go beyond participant
observation and can in fact be used as an overarching guiding framework. I approached my
research in this way and used several methods such as qualitative interviewing, focus groups
and participant observation to complement each other to gain some insight into the everyday
lives of my intended respondents.
This technique of mixing methods is known as “within methods” triangulation whereby several
techniques within a specific method, in this case, the qualitative method, are used ‘to collect
and to interpret data’ (Jick 1979:602-603). Triangulation can be an essential tool in providing
the reader with a thick description of the phenomenon (Jick 1979: 608-609) being studied.
My research was rounded off by analysing the discourses of risk, the label of “at risk” and other
labels affixed to young men of this community. I also examined the interactions between
discursive representations, social practices and power which is what Yates (2004: 233)
describes as discourse analysis. To do this I examined:
government speeches;
Inter American Development Bank (IDB) policy documents;
official documents of other international agencies;
newspaper articles and
personal interviews with the CSP staff and the young men.
This last aspect of my discourse analysis was especially important since the CSP staff members
are the ones putting the discourse into practice and the young men are the recipients of it. This
discourse analysis shed light on my sub questions: who is an “at risk” youth and what does this
label (of “at risk”) imply.
My approach to ‘youth’ in this paper, falls in line with social constructivism whereby ‘youth’ is
viewed as a social construct reflecting the existing ‘sociopolitical’ environment of the society in
which young people live (Comaroff & Comaroff 2005:19). Therefore the terms ‘youth’ and “at
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risk” as it refers to young men must be deconstructed to reveal underlying assumptions and
perceptions about young men from the Beetham Gardens which the wider society holds.
Methods: Data Collection
Semi-Structured Interviews
My fieldwork was undertaken between the months of August and October 2012. I conducted a
series of semi-structured interviews with six young men from the community between the ages
of 14 and 21 years. I chose to interview participants within the age range as provided by the
CSP (7-24) as this demographic cohort defined by them forms part of how ‘youth’ are
constructed by this policy.
Semi-structured interviews were chosen as the preferred method to permit my “exploration […]
of the subjective understandings of the social world” (Yates 2004: 158) of these young men.
These interviews allowed me to gain insight into the young men’s lived experiences, their
perceptions about the CSP and their beliefs about how society viewed them. These interviews
explored themes of labeling, discrimination and were especially helpful in answering my sub
questions: what is excluded when we frame young people as “at risk”? and how does this
label (of at risk) affect young men from this community.
The interviews with the other 5 participants could be referred to as ‘stakeholder interviews’
(Mac Donald and Marsh, 2005:41) and which comprised of the members of the CSP and
members of the Community Action Council (CAC), the community body responsible for
implementation of numerous programmes. The stakeholder interviews assisted in answering
one of my sub-questions :who is an “at risk” youth?
The interviews usually lasted between 1-2 hours and most were tape recorded. The interviews
were then listened to and although the entire interview was not transcribed verbatim, essential
elements and key discussions were. However, this meant that sometimes interviews had to be
listened to repeatedly when new themes which were not initially identified, subsequently arose
resulting sometimes in an ineffective use of time. These interviews occurred in various locations
24
including but not limited to, the participants’ homes, at a community school and on the street
corner amongst other places. I preferred as much as possible to go to my participants,
wherever they were, including their community since this site formed an important part of my
research.
The table below itemizes who my participants were, the number of interviews held, the dates
of the interviews and interview type.
Table 1.0 indicating participants for qualitative Interviews.
Research
participant
Date of interview No. of formal
interviews
Interview Type
Abinta Clarke – CAO 29/08/2012 1 One-on-One
Ryssa Brathwaite-
Tobias- Community
and youth specialist
29/08/2012 1 One-on-One
Rick* 13/09/2012 1 One-on-One
Randy* 27/08/2012
28/08/2012
14/09/2012
29/09/2012
4 One-on-One; Joint
Juliet 22/08/2012 1 One-on-One
Kane* 28/08/2012 1 Joint
Joseph * 27/08/2012 1 Joint
Rhino* 28/08/2012
14/09/2012
29/09/2012
3 One-on-One;Joint;One-on-One
Rex* 27/08/2012
28/08/2012
2 Joint
Jerome* 28/08/2012 1 Joint
Shawn* 14/09/2012 1 One-on-One
Shawn* , Kane* ,
Rhino* , Daniel*,
14/09/2012 1 Informal focus group
25
Anthony*
*Pseudonyms usedAn expanded version of this table can be found in Appendix 1
Some interviews were joint as this appeared to be more feasible time wise. Due to the
unstructured attempt at sampling and time constraints, I had to maximize any window of
opportunity that was available to me. On three occasions, I began one-on-one interviews which
subsequently became joint interviews because the participants were available at that time.
In all cases where joint interviews were held, the participants knew each other, some of whom
were neighbours whilst the others participated in the last CSP event together, Shoot to Live. As
a result, the interviews flowed well, in some cases with the participants adding to each other’s
statements, contesting and agreeing. This technique proved well in exposing a myriad of
experiences regarding a specific incident or issue despite my small sampling size. Where there
were contradictions or variations of experiences, these were noted and used to highlight the
nuances that exist in the everyday realities of these young people.
My key themes, pre-interview, were broadly the “at risk” discourse and processes of
marginalization. However my interviews revealed that the theme of labeling as related to the
‘at risk’ discourse and the ways in which it interacted with marginalization also needed
attention. Indications of coping with economic pressures of capitalism and my participants’
resilience emerged as new themes and proved useful in my discussions in this paper. The
‘relative openness’ (Mac Donald and Marsh, 2005:43), of qualitative methods encouraged this
broadening of my key themes.
Focus Groups
In Table 1.0, I also refer to an informal focus group which can be defined as an unplanned focus
group meeting in an informal setting with little structure (Morgan, 1996:130), which was the
case in my present research. These informal discussions arose at the CSP launch of the
26
photography component of the Shoot to Live intervention and followed the initial set of
qualitative interviews. It must be noted however that two new participants Daniel, a 16 year old
male and Anthony, a 17 year old male were newly introduced to me at this event but they did
form part of this discussion. Furthermore, Joseph who was one of my previous interviewees
was absent during the informal focus group. I found that since some of the young men already
recognized me from a prior interaction, the discussions flowed well, as there was already a
small element of trust due in part to their recognition of me.
I was also able to use some of the information gathered in the initial interviews as starting
points for discussion with the wider group and to check some conclusions from a wider pool of
persons in a short time (Morgan, 1996:134). I hardly played the role of moderator in this
discussion as the role of observer was far more interesting and I did not want to disrupt the
organic flow of the conversation which can be a potential pitfall of moderating (Morgan
1996:145). In this way I was able to insert myself into the conversation quite easily. I engaged in
conversation with the young men in other topics which they discussed for themselves, which
included playful ‘teasing’ of other members of the group (some of this material forms part of
analysis in my research); sometimes answering questions directed to me; as well as playing on a
playground in a park nearby without much talking.
Participant Observation
Participant observation occurred mostly during my observational walk around the
neighbourhood with my guide, which also served the purpose of having people in the
neighbourhood see me with a resident; why this was important is discussed in the section
regarding my positionality). I also talked informally with some of the young people and the
other participants in the sample. Also during my final interview session I spoke with one of the
young men on a street corner for about 45 minutes. This session was not recorded as I felt this
locale was too sensitive for me to openly and visibly record my participant. As a result I listened
and after the interview I made notes. These informal talks proved to be quite valuable for my
data collection because the participant and I had by now built some rapport.
Ethical Considerations
27
My participants were given pseudonyms so as to protect their identity. Although anonymity
was not necessarily requested by them, I thought it would be best, in light of the fact that early
on in my research, the CSP personnel requested that I submit a draft of my research paper
before its submission. Since I was aware that there was a possibility of the CSP staff reading my
research paper it would be likely that my participants could be identified and I was unsure how
this would affect interpersonal relationships between the participants and the organization.
Thus out of an abundance of caution I decided to anonymise some of my participants,
especially the young people who may in the future want to participate in CSP events. The other
participants who were not anonymised were the CSP staff I interviewed as well as Juliet Davy
who indicated that her identity could be maintained.
Early on in my research process, the CSP staff indicated their hope that I would forward to them
a draft of my research paper for their review before it was considered final. After the initial
mention of this by way of email, this issue was never brought up again. In light of the fact that
my drafts kept changing quite substantively until the day before submission, I was unable to
acquiesce to this request fully. A copy was however forwarded a few hours prior to submission
to the CSP office. This caused to me deal with internal questions as to what extent was I
obligated to acquiesce to this request and what control the CSP could have over my analysis.
Although the response to my paper could have formed part of my analysis for my paper, there
was insufficient time to deal with it. These questions are therefore left for me to ponder on.
My sample was chosen based on availability and willingness of the participants and the majority
was facilitated through my attendance at various CSP events. Most of the young men from my
semi structured interviews were older than 18 and so parental consent was not required. Two
of them were under 18 and for one, parental consent was sought as his mother was a CAC
member to whom I explained my research and she volunteered her son. The other young man
was interviewed at a CSP event to which none of his parents attended. As a result an informal
interview was conducted but consent was not officially sought from a guardian. For my
interviews with the CSP staff, they were asked to sign consent forms, as it was my feeling that a
28
formal document would assist in giving me legitimacy. The forms can be found in Appendix 2
along with other documents submitted to the CSP.
I chose to focus more on the accounts of the young people and the official CSP personnel, due
partially to constraints of space and the desire to highlight the nexus and tensions between
what a policy intends to do and what it actually does. As a result some of the formal and
informal interviews with the Community Action Council (CAC) members were not directly
included in this research paper.
Managing My Data
The information gathered was then compared and contrasted to statements from my
secondary sources which were the subject of my discourse analysis. In some cases where
linkages were made or tensions were revealed, prior to an interview, these issues would be
highlighted and brought up for clarification, if not I tried my best to present them here, if they
could not be reconciled. As indicated earlier certain choices to include and exclude data were
made based on relevance to my selected themes.
Positionality: My Role as Researcher
As Ng (2011:439) suggests, we should not shy away our subjectivities even though they may
raise tough questions and dilemmas but which can result in ethically fulfilling ethnographic
research.
Methodological biases
Crossa (2012, 110:132) in her article argues that one’s subjectivities and positionality affect
methodological and theoretical choices which may frame interaction in the field and the
research questions. She suggests that theoretical approaches form part of the research process
and can sometimes reveal a researcher’s biases. In my case, I approached my research from a
social constructivist perspective as discussed above with a focus on structures of power and
29
inequality. For the most part, I viewed power as something enforced by the state and
international organizations on persons who were marginalized. Initially I believed that, power
was operationalized as flowing from top to bottom, however my research in the field revealed
that power can be exercised by all the different players including those viewed as marginalized.
This issue is explored later in my paper in my discussions on power and agency.
My propensity to lean on this theoretical framework could be as a result of the way I view my
own history. As a single black female who also originated from an area which was not affluent
and which community experienced several social issues such as domestic violence, drug
problems and neglect from the state, even before I entered the field I felt connected and
empathetic with my research community.
I sought to balance this potential bias to view my participants as victims of structural inequality
by being reflexive about the way I presented myself, my line of questioning and the way I
phrased my questions. For example, in the first set of interviews I held, I used the word stigma
quite often and my participants would use this term when responding to me. In my case stigma
has a very specific meaning and falls in line with my focus on power relations and inequality. I
soon realized that I needed to be careful of my use of the term for fear of my participants using
this word although they wouldn’t have ordinarily used it or if they wished to convey some other
idea. As a result I became aware of my usage of this term, attempting to use it less or not at all.
Age
A researcher must also acknowledge that certain positions and identities do bring with them
different levels of power and consequences (Ng 2011:446). Thus whether I was empathetic or
not, I entered the field as a researcher which brings its own connotation of power within the
research site. Interestingly I found that my age proved to be an equalizing force and which
assisted in building rapport between myself and my young participants in much the same way
that Ng (2011:448) found her education level assisted in neutralizing her gender in a site where
elder men were at the helm. After asking my age the young males even invited me to spend
time with them playing on the playground and I was allowed to be an active participant in their
world. I believe this contributed to building rapport with my participants.
30
Although their ages varied and I was older than they were, I was close enough to their ages of
14-21 years, to be able to communicate with them, some also commented on the fact that I
looked younger than my age and thought I was their age. The ease of these interactions was
not necessarily felt with some of my older respondents who also could not believe that I was
actually twenty six years old. Upon reflection I should have prodded my respondents further to
enquire why knowing my age was relevant to our discussions.
Gender
My experience in the field demonstrated that at times my gender worked both to my
advantage and proved to be a minor distraction when conducting my research. The fact that I
was female did mean that, in dealing with young males between the ages of 14-21, several
advances were made to me with regards to entering into relationships with some of them. This
was not a major drawback since it was never brought up in any serious manner but was the
subject of what I deemed to be playful banter between the boys about my presence in the area.
Prior to entering the field however, informal discussions with residents of the area and persons
in general all seemed to indicate that being female would mitigate the fact that I was unknown
to the residents within the area. I was also advised that entering the community with someone
from the area would further reduce the potential for residents to view me with suspicion. This
advice was heeded and I entered the field with a resident and member of the CAC.
The presence of a guide would serve to alter my positionality from being viewed as an outsider
who would not be welcomed to one who was. This intentional move to alter my position was
necessary to gain access to my first five participants who felt comfortable with my guide Randy,
who asked them to participate in my research.
In her paper, Notermans (2008: 364) indicates that sometimes it is necessary to intentionally
alter your position by aligning yourself with an individual from the community with whom the
participants could feel comfortable. Notermans (2008:364) writes about positionality with
regards to her research about fostering young children and her decision to use a well-respected
31
foster mother of the area with whom the children felt comfortable. This technique helped her
to produce results, where otherwise she would not have gotten any data from her research
with the young children (Notermans, 2008: 364).
Although the accompaniment of my aide was highly valuable to my research there was an
instance during the research process where one of my participants hesitated when asked direct
questions about the CSP. I attempted to reduce any discomfort by asking my participant
whether he was uncomfortable with my guide’s presence, if he wanted him to leave and in one
instance my guide contributed to the conversation to put the participant at ease. This risk of
data collection being negatively affected by aides and one’s position can be a real threat to
research. Huijsmans (2012:339) in his research indicated that his position as a foreign
researcher, a status usually affiliated with an international organization or the government
resulted in his data ‘being littered with appropriate responses, evasions and miss-
presentations’ to promote certain requests or agendas by the respondents themselves.
Sometimes my participants appeared to evade answering direct questions, hesitating before
responding to direct questions about the CSP and gave what appeared to be appropriate
responses. This was especially true for one respondent in particular who was interviewed in
Randy’s presence and in the informal focus group at the launch of the CSP Shoot to Live
photography component. I felt a bit uncomfortable to ask them direct questions about the CSP
as the CSP representatives were in attendance. In terms of my interviews with the CSP staff
some responses did appear to betray a sense of political correctness, as one of my interviewees
made a comment in one instance “ I don’t want to use a word that’s not suitable” in describing
some of the issues she believed that young people from the Beetham Gardens were facing11.
Outsider
11 Notes taken from interview with Ryssa Brathwaite Tobias , 29/08/2012
32
My position as an outsider researcher became an issue when I travelled to the community for
the third time. On my third visit I was going to attend a CSP meeting at a school in the area, but
I was unable to contact my guide prior to the meeting.
As a result I panicked at the thought of entering the community without a resident at my side.
This meeting was set to take place in the evening which meant that I would most likely be there
late into the night, much unlike my other interview sessions which took place during broad
daylight. This element of the time of entry into the community was verbalized by a friend who I
met on my way to the meeting and who expressed concern over the fact that I was going into
the Beetham at such a late hour reminding me that it would soon become dark. This served to
heighten my sense of fear and anxiety and was almost enough for me to abandon my research.
Despite having gone into the community two times before, I was still quite afraid, bringing to
my attention my still very deep–rooted conceptions about the area being unsafe and rife with
violence and the fact that I was a female entering the community alone (a subjectivity which
was initially seen as positive). Had I not made contact with my guide eventually, there was a
real possibility that I would not have attended the meeting that day. This situation shed some
light on my own personal experience of the effects of stigma on the wider society’s perception
of security and crime in the area. I realized I also had contradictory feelings about this
community; from a distance I empathized but when it was time for me to enter the field on my
own, it was revealed that I too accepted on some level that this area was a bad neighbourhood.
This seemed similar to what Narayan (1997: 678) described as an ‘inverse process’ whereby our
pre-existing experience absorbs ‘analytic categories that rename and reframe what is already
known’ when a researcher studies his own society. I would add that this inverse process also
includes not only putting names to our experience but causes the researcher to be reflexive
when reframing such experience. Reflexivity has been described as an ‘internal dialogue’ (Ng
2011:441) which serves to raise one’s consciousness (2011:443) and is essential to creating
thick descriptions about one’s research.
It is important to note that my time in the field revealed numerous subjectivities which assisted
me during my research namely my age and my gender. I learned that sometimes it is necessary
33
to alter your positionality as well, which in my case was done by entering the field with a guide.
However, before I entered the field, my own experiences affected my choice of theories and my
approaches to my research shedding some light on inherent biases. In situations such as these
it is necessary to be reflexive and constantly challenge my own perceptions and approaches to
my research participants and to the data.
My methods assisted me in answering my research question and sub questions and my primary
source of data collection was semi structured interviews. This however was complemented by
participant observation, focus groups and discourse analysis of text and of interviews.
In the following chapter I delve into my analysis on the constructions of ‘youth’ and the “at risk
label as it is proposed under the CSP.
Chapter 3: Discursive Representations of young men in the Beetham Gardens.
34
The Beetham Gardens has a history of pejorative discursive representations of young people. In
this chapter, I explore these labels by first examining ‘youth’ as a social construct within global
literature. Then I turn my attention to labeling at a micro level with a focus on the “at risk”
label. I argue that these labels are intimately related to the discourses of risk and serve to
further entrench the already existing marginalization of the Beetham Gardens and the young
men who live there.
Youth as a social construct
As already explained in chapter 2, I approach the question of ‘youth’ as a social construction
reflecting the social context in which it is developed. ‘Youth’ are perceived in various ways
oftentimes representing a duality even within the same country. Jones (2009:2) shows that
‘youth’ have been seen as persons to be celebrated and deplored; heroes and villains and such
duality results in ‘youth’ having an intrinsic bipolarity according to Comaroff &Comaroff
(2005:23-24). Bessant who was cited in ‘Rethinking Youth’ (1997:18), discussed the popular
dual representations of young people both as a threat and the utopian ideal of hope although
vulnerable and Comaroff and Comaroff (2005:24) argue that for the most part the everyday
lived perception is that ‘youth’ are unruly and constantly challenge the status quo in negative
ways.
Here-what is important is the interaction between the constructions of ‘youth’ and policy
interventions. It is trite to say that the way ‘youth’ are seen will impact directly with the ways
the state or society at large tend to interact with young people. Thus, if ‘youth’ is synonymous
with criminality and delinquency, policy interventions will tend to be repressive, invasive or as
in our case preventative. To counteract this, Durham (2000:116) contends that young people
should be seen as ‘social shifters’ who move between these dual constructions in their lived
realities exposing power relations, social structures and the spurious demarcations of who
‘youth’ are. Policy analysis and design however usually fails to appreciate the nuances of young
people’s lives in such a way.
Additionally, policy can itself demarcate young people in various ways and may not only be
responses to social constructions but can also produce discourses around young people. Jones
35
(2009:3) notes “it is policy legislation above all else which defines life stages mainly by age and
designs provisions accordingly, because age is amenable to measurement”. For example, in the
National Census of Trinidad and Tobago, the National Government (CSO, 2000-2010) adopts the
UN definition of youth. However according to the CSP ‘youth’ are persons between the ages 7-
24, (CSP website, 2009) an even wider group than that adopted by the National Government.
It can be argued that the widening of the age category of youth is a clever tool to legitimize
intervention on the part of the government into the lives of young people at an even earlier
stage than before. But not only does policy define life stages but it attaches characteristics to
those within that age group and labels them as explained below.
A manifestation therefore of these discourses about ‘youth’ is labeling. Thus when labels are
affixed to the young men of Beetham Gardens it says a lot about how society perceives this
group. The situation becomes tenuous when the young men have already experienced labeling
in some regard due to the low status of their community. This ‘double labeling’ as I call it, will
only serve to reinforce existing processes of marginalization and result in the inclusion of young
men into society in very unequal ways.
History of Labeling and Stereotyping
During my interviews, all of my research participants including members and non-members of
the community all commented on the ways in which the Beetham is described by persons of
the wider society with whom they have had contact. When asked about his personal
encounters with regards to the perception of people of his area, Randy, a 32 year old male
resident of the Beetham Gardens says the wider society looks at Beetham “as one of the worst
…the most dreadest place. If you go there (Beetham) you go dead...the most baddest, weirdest
most disrespectful set of things people have to say”12.
(Interview 1 on 27/08/2012 with Randy 32, male)
12Quote from Interview 1 with Randy,27/08/2012.
36
Randy recalls Beetham residents being referred to as pests, as criminals and as persons who
should be killed, with such statements being made by his work colleagues, persons calling into
radio stations and commuters with whom he shared public transportation13.
Rhino, a 17 year old male resident, recounts
“ people think all Beetham people are bad, dangerous, criminals.”
(Interview 1 on 28/08/2012 with Rhino, 17 , male)
“Not everybody on the Beetham bad ...it have people who could change their life.
Everybody done thinking everybody on the Beetham is a criminal.”
(Interview 2 on 29/09/2012with Rhino14, 17, male)
When pushed further another participant who lives in the community, Jerome, a 19 year old
male resident, states that if I were to come and live in the community for a week that I too
would become ‘bad’15.
Rex adds
“When I was in primary school …other children would say ‘o god is Beetham
rats’…everything you could be eating is from the la basse16”
(Interview 1 on 27/09/2012with Rex, 19, male)
This sentiment was a common thread throughout all of the interviews I conducted. Some of the
adjectives used to describe the persons living within this community was ‘bad’ and ‘criminal’
recurring the most and insinuations of dirtiness. This correlation of Beetham residents to
negative characteristics is well known throughout the wider society and is inextricably linked to
the fact that the community is located between the National Dumpsite and an industrial estate.
13 Notes taken from interview 1 with Randy,27/08/2012.14 Rhino chose his own pseudonym as this issue was brought up on the last meeting with my participants and Rhino was one of two persons who showed up for the meeting.15 Notes taken from interview with Jerome,28/08/2012.16 The La Basse is a Patois word which connotes lowness and is a colloquial term for the dump.
37
In 2011 the current Government of Trinidad and Tobago implemented a nationwide State of
Emergency to curb crime17. However, the curfews were implemented in most of the
communities which were also identified as “high needs” and with rising levels of crime. During
this time, persons of these communities who were found violating the state of emergency were
detained and imprisoned. A resident of the area highlighted how young men from the Beetham
Gardens are constructed by the state in a newspaper article. The resident noted:
If this state of emergency continues another three months, there might be
nobody in Beetham because every day, police holding people. Every male under
30, they label gang member...God, not everybody bad here!
(Quote taken from newspaper article, Alexander, 2011).
In this quote this resident reveals the way in which young men from Beetham Gardens are
perceived as bad and perpetrators of crime by the state.
In 2008, a new label was introduced to refer to this group of people. The Government of
Trinidad and Tobago, joined several other countries in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC)
region when it introduced the “at risk” discourse into the national arena via the
implementation of the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) programme called the Citizen
Security Programme (CSP). This programme promotes discourse of risk and labels young
people as “at risk”.
This label has become increasingly synonymous with young men. Surprisingly however, during
my interviews with my young participants, when asked about the term “at risk” none of them
recognized it or understood what it was supposed to mean in relation to them. They did
identify with the labels of ‘criminal’ or ‘bad’ as discussed earlier. Although this appeared
peculiar at first, I argue that failure to identify with this term does not negate the fact that this
label effectively reinforces their marginalization. Whether aware of it or not the labels of the
CSP was productive. The effects of the term “at risk” on the public and the consequences it has
17 Further information on why the State of Emergency was implemented can be found here http://www.news.gov.tt/index.php?news=9020
38
for these young men’s full participation in society warrants its deconstruction. This label
legitimizes increased surveillance of these young men whether they identify with the label or
not and presents them as one homogenous group sharing certain negative characteristics.
Who is an “at risk” youth’?
In an interview with the Ryssa Brathwaite Tobias, the Community and Youth Specialist for the
CSP, an “at risk youth” was defined as follows:-
An at-risk young person from our experience would be one who may or may not
have completed school, someone who may or may not have both parents,
someone whose household conditions may be deplorable or unacceptable
including unsanitary; someone who has been or [is] in contact with the law or
whose parents may have been in contact with the law; someone who has
witnessed or has been a victim of a crime; any form of victimization; has lost a
relative or observed the death of a relative through violence and that’s generally
it…and exposure to drugs
(Interview with Ryssa Brathwaite Tobias, Community and Youth Specialist, CSP, 29/08/2012)
When pushed further about whether the CSP required a convergence of those risk factors to
determine if a person was in fact “at risk”, the response was no. Ryssa responded that the CSP
looked at:
the presence of these risks in the community at general as making you at risk.
The presence of limited access to resources, social services, no state presence,
plus those other things. The crime data tells us that its at risk but we don’t set
about to measure the level of risk at an individual level because generally you
would find that our work is not as yet or as much as we would like it to be at that
level of individual level outcomes, more at a community level or at a family level.
We don’t even measure per family risk at this time.
39
(Quote from interview with Ryssa Brathwaite Tobias, 29/08/2012)
I pushed further with Ryssa, to determine then whether all young people who lived in the
communities identified by the CSP were deemed to be “at risk” and the response given was less
than clear. She indicated that the CSP did not seek to paint the community with one broad
brush and therefore the role of the CAO was important in identifying those who were most “at
risk”.
The issue of targeting here remains unclear. On the one hand this definition is clearly quite
broad and vague and could essentially include a vast cross section of the population of young
people in Trinidad and Tobago. An examination of the actual practices surrounding targeting
would suggest otherwise however. The CSP through various methods have concluded that
there are 22 high needs communities which contain “at risk” youth. Here we see a tension
between programs, their targeting mechanisms and practices.
One possible interpretation of Ryssa’s responses could be that it is a case of political
correctness attempting not to explicitly say that these young men are in fact “at risk”. But what
this does is then homogenize a large group of people based on their location in a ‘high needs’
community. The issue of spatial dynamics arises here again. Risk only becomes problematic
when it is located in a community defined by the CSP as ‘high needs’.
Randy, a 32 year old male resident was asked what he thought about the label of “at risk” to
which he responded that he couldn’t understand its significance because the youths “at risk”
were everywhere.18 This tension of who really is “at risk”; its apparent applicability to a wide
cross section of people yet only actually applying to some young people leads us to our
discussion on the dangers of this label as it poses several difficulties including but not limited to:
individualization, the linking of “at risk” youth to crime and delinquency as well as
homogenization and gender stratification. Our deconstruction becomes even more complex
when a positive aspect is highlighted during one of my interviews and will be explored in the
next chapter.
18 Quote from interview on 27/08/2012 with Randy.
40
Individualization and the Deficit Model
Although it appears that ‘at risk youth’ as defined by the CYS officer could apply to a broad
cross section of young people within the Trinidadian context and not necessarily limited to
those in the so called ‘high needs’ communities, such as the Beetham gardens, the fact remains
that only certain sites are the recipients of this label despite this very broad categorization.
Te Riele (2006:138) in her work on young people at risk of failing within the school system
makes the following statement:-
The very act of identifying some subgroups of students may be interpreted as
locating the problem in those students themselves and thus ‘blaming the
victim’ (Natriello et al., 1990, p. 3). Taylor (2002, p. 512) suggests that
labelling a young person as ‘at risk’ implies ‘a flawed moral biography’.
Identification may lead to lowered expectations, decreased self esteem, and
de-motivation, all with possible detrimental effects on students’ educational
achievement...
What Te Riele is describing is known as the deficit model, whereby young people who are
labeled as “at risk” are perceived as lacking some essential qualities and risk is seen as an
individual attribute (Te Riele, 2006:136) or even a group attribute.
What this label of “at risk” does therefore in the present context is identify the young men in
Beetham Gardens as being flawed, blaming them because they have a propensity to participate
in criminal activity from which they must be deterred.
Te Riele suggests that more complex interpretations which consider macro structural processes
for example income inequality or labour market biases, of risk are rare (2006:136). In a speech
given by the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago at the launch of another government
intervention in the Beetham Gardens, the Making Life Important Initiative (MLI) she listed such
factors which contribute to crime as:
41
Poverty and inequitable distribution of wealth and opportunities; High levels of
unemployment; The collapse of supportive family structures and social
relationships; Inadequate schooling; The proliferation of street gangs which
offer nurturing, protection, friendship, emotional support, and other distractions
for unattended, unchaperoned resident youth; Lack of positive role models for the
youth to emulate, in particular “father-figures”; and Physical environments and
spaces which have negative impacts on human behaviour – the “Broken
Window” Syndrome which suggests that broken windows and smashed cars are
visible signs of people not caring about their community and which may give out
crime-promoting signals.
This acknowledgement of external and structural factors was juxtaposed against a previous
statement in that same speech:
Earlier this year, there was the launch of the National Youth Mentorship
programme, another flagship initiative under the Ministry of National Security I
recall saying that “we will never be able to turn around our crime situation unless
at-risk youths are given the opportunity to change the stigma that is attached to
them( my emphasis)
(Excerpt from Speech at launch of MLI Initiative, Bissessar,2011).
What this effectively does is, simultaneously label young people as “at risk” then tell them that
they are the ones responsible for changing that label.
Another example of this individualization was seen at the launch of the CSP, where the CSP was
described as:
an interactive pro social intervention, which seeks to identify at risk-youths, and
provide them with positive alternatives, so as to change their negative behaviours
towards society (my emphasis) and stop this cycle of spiraling violence and crime.
42
(Excerpt from speech at launch of CSP given byMinister of National Security, 2008).
The underlying assumption is that the problem lies with the young people themselves. Laying
blame within the individual makes it easy for young people to become the ‘criminal other’.
Swadener and Lubeck (1995:69) in their discussion of mothers “at risk” state that the blaming
of individuals “provides an easy, relatively powerless target for public scorn of (“Them”) and
allows (“Us”) who are neither poor, unmarried, divorced, minority, nor working in a job that
provides little flexibility to be self-congratulatory”. This distinction she adds makes it clear who
has the right to speak and who is to be spoken of and relieves ‘us’ of any obligation to listen to
‘them’ (Swadener and Lubeck, 1995: 69). Laying the blame on the individual can in itself
exclude groups of people who are seen as incapable of making the right prescribed choices.
Linking Young People to Crime and Delinquency
According to the Community and Youth Specialist (CYS) of the CSP, these categorizations of
“high needs” and “at risk” are based, inter alia upon statistical crime data which have indicated
that the targeted communities experience high levels of crime19.
The CSP was designed to “create a culture of peace and lawfulness” (CSP Trinidad and Tobago
website) and is focused on deterring young people from lives of crime; crime being the
purported major risk that young people face within the Beetham Gardens.
Peetz (2011:1465) argues that:
When we categorize an act as juvenile delinquency or youth violence, we pick one
of the many aspects of a given deed and define it as the distinctive one. Apart
from the fact that the act is considered criminal or violent, the age of its
perpetrator becomes the crucial characteristic by which to classify it.
According to Buvinic et al (2005:4) in their report ‘Emphasizing Prevention Citizen Security: The
Inter American Development Bank’s Contribution to Reducing Violence in Latin America and the
Caribbean’ :
19 Notes taken from Interview with Ryssa Brathwaite, 29/08/2012.
43
The most compelling data at the macro or societal level links the high levels of
violence in the region, first, with the demographic transition that has boosted the
segment of the population that is most prone to aggression (youths). Second,
there is a significant relationship between violence and the region’s historically
high and still growing income inequality.
Buvinic et al add further that (2005: 15) “a large percentage of youth in Latin America and the
Caribbean are at high risk of engaging in dangerous behaviors such as association with gangs or
other high-risk peer groups, alcohol and substance abuse, and violent behavior”.
Under this discourse young people are seen as threats to the security of others as they are
perceived as “prone to aggression” (Buvinic 2005:4) and highly vulnerable to participate in
criminal activity.
Homogenization and Gender Stratification
Labeling young people in the Beetham Gardens as “at risk”, bad or criminals homogenizes all
young people in this area as deviants. According to Jones (2009:3-4) it is a clear manipulation to
refer to young people as one social unit, a homogenous group which fails to acknowledge the
heterogeneity and diversity amongst young people and their experiences. It fails to consider
the structural inequalities, agency and marginalizing effects of labels.
Swadener and Lubeck (1995: 76) present this as a ‘shaved or partial image of those who are
defined as at risk’. Framing therefore highlights one aspect of a reality while leaving out other,
equally important aspects; giving the effect of a skewed reality to wider society (what is being
left out of this at risk discourse is explored below). According to Te Riele (2006:140) the label of
“youth at risk” can result in further marginalization of young people and takes emphasis away
from policy responding to the real needs of the target group.
Furthermore, the nexus between crime and youth is not the only one being made but in fact
the link is made between young men and participation in criminal activity. According to the
Caribbean Human Development Report 2012 (2012:47) in which they surveyed the entire LAC
region, they found that:
44
youth violence has a gender dimension. Across the region, the majority of aggressors and victims are young men who use violence for protection against threats—real or perceived—or who have been socialized into a male-dominated tradition of conflict resolution through violence. At the same time, young women are victims of verbal and physical violence, particularly in the interpersonal and domestic spheres. Relative to men, almost twice the proportion of women reported being threatened by spouses, partners, or ex-partners (14 percent of young women compared with 7.5 percent of young men).
Young males increasingly come to be known as perpetrators of violence and crime becomes
synonymous with juvenile offending by young males; whilst women are the victims.
According to the Children and Youth Specialist, gender mainstreaming is not the intention of
the CSP however and there was an attempt to engage in programmes which both males and
females could participate in20. However when asked whether the programmes tended to
attract more males than females, the Children and Youth Specialist stated that:
[…] part of it is coincidental , because some of the most effective ways of
mobilizing communities are kind of male oriented such as football …deejaying…
lets say steelpan21 and this tends to appeal to a male audience so I think part of
this is coincidental, part of it is deliberate based on who’s holding the guns…
(Quote taken from interview with Ryssa Brathwaite- Tobias, CYS , 29/08/2012)
Although the gender mainstreaming may not be intentional, the CSP may be gender blind in its
approach and this can be viewed as one of the unintentional effects of policies that Li (2007)
talks about in her article on governmentality. One view may be that it is erroneous to think that
girls do not participate in activities which are viewed as male centric such a sports or that the
implementation of such programmes succeeds in excluding young females from participating
20 Notes taken from interview with Ryssa Brathwaite Tobias on 29/08/2012.21 The steelpan is a musical instrument created in Trinidad and Tobago.
45
on a larger scale22. Further research on young women’s participation is clearly needed in this
area.
Either way, the acknowledgement that some gender disparity does exist gives credence to the
Caribbean Human Development Report’s finding that ‘youth violence’ is gendered and should
be subjected to further research.
Whilst the data may indicate that violence is gendered, it does not negate the fact that labeling
an entire group of young men as “at risk” is grossly homogenizing and discriminatory against
young men from this community. If all young men are perceived as deviants then this affects
how society, international organizations and the state (including the police and the judiciary)
interact with these young men and this leads to our discussion in the next section about
technologies of governance.
Risk discourses and labels individualize young men and pathologizes them into following
criminal careers. These labels however compound previous labels of ‘criminals’ and as ‘bad’.
This double labeling can only serve to reinforce these previous labels which reflect some of the
processes of marginalization of young men.
Garnering Interest, Creating Linkages and Partnerships – the positives of the label
But the label may not be all bad depending on where the subject who is discussing the label is
situated. According to the Children and Youth Specialist, this label can be beneficial:
Question: - Does society’s view of the Beetham impede the CSP’s work?
Answer:- The positive that comes is that everybody has a desire to demonstrate
that they can work in Beetham. We get a lot of opportunities to partner and
bring stakeholders in…you must be the 3rd or 4th student with an interest in
working in Beetham that we have encountered. The rotary club, the lions club
22 A request was made for a list of programmes for the year 2012 and the gender of their participants from the CSP and although the CSP indicated their willingness to provide same no data was received at the time my paper was finalized.
46
there are a lot of external agencies who want to work in the Beetham and some
of them just don’t have a point of entry and so it makes it easy for us because
there are some things we can’t do and there are other agencies able to do it and
willing to do … I would say that it doesn’t impede it in that sense. How it might
impede it might be where sometimes we have situations where, like an
employment situation…for a lot of them the presented issue is one of bread and
butter, so ...employment partners, people interested in employing people might
say …because you are a legitimate organization, we are willing to hire these
young people to get them to do something else and then they might realize
where the young people are coming from and it may affect some of the
opportunities that would be facilitated for the community…but from where I sit it
appears that there are a lot of partners and a lot of opportunities for the
community based on it being Beetham Gardens and everybody is willing to
conquer it
Question: - In a sense the at-risk discourse actually helps?
Answer: - it makes it attractive it makes it a sexy community to work in.
- (Excerpt from interview with Ryssa Brathwaite Tobias, Community and Youth Specialist CSP, 29/08/2012)
When faced with Swadener and Lubeck’s question (1995:88) of who benefits from the
ideological and material constructions of ‘youth at risk’, we see that the discourse serves a
purpose in creating interest and partnerships with international and local agencies, in the
context of the CSP’s work in the Beetham Gardens.
The tension between how the label works for and against young people from Beetham Gardens
is revealed and adds to the complexity of the position that young men in Beetham Gardens are
in. On one hand they are the criminal ‘other’ which effectively restricts access to employment
opportunities by young people and as my participant pointed out the issue is one of “bread and
butter” or survival wherein economic opportunities are important to young people. On the
47
other hand by virtue of the fact that the young men are the ‘criminal other’ means that
resources are being pumped into the community and into them and partnerships are forged
within civil society.
These complications become exposed when we deconstruct these labels. As explained above
who is defined as “at risk” is poses a challenge. Despite this the CSP has effectively identified a
sub group of people based partly on what appears to be spatial and demographic categories. In
this regard, young people have automatically received the label of “at risk” because they live in
the Beetham Gardens. “At risk” is then operationalized to refer to young men who are prone to
aggression and to participate in criminal activity. The fact that this community has already had a
history of labeling which can be seen as a process of marginalization means that new labels only
serve to buttress the exclusion of this community and the young men who live there. The
combination of these elements of the risk discourse, results in increased surveillance of a
specific group of people through technologies of governance. This aspect of a very real
consequence of this label is explored in the next chapter.
Chapter 4: Effects of the “at risk” discourse.
In this section I show some tangible effects of the “at risk” label by showing that it legitimizes
interventions into the lives of young men within this community and obscures from view the
efforts being made by them to improve their lives and some difficulties faced in the labour
market.
Technologies of Governance
Li (2007:276) defines governmental interventions as:
48
assemblages [which help] to break down the image of government as the
preserve of a monolithic state operating as a singular source of power and
enables us to recognize the range of parties involved in attempts to regulate the
conditions under which lives are lived. These parties include not only diverse state
agencies with competing visions, mandates and techniques, but missionaries,
scientists, activists and the so-called NGOs, both national and transnational.
Globally, young people are one of the most governed groups today through which the state
continuously intervenes in their lives and seeks to regulate or modify the behaviour of this
group of people (Gallagher 2008: 401-402). This is a phenomenon that Kelly (2000) describes
as the ‘dangerousness of risk’. Kelly adds (2000:464),
Risk discourses are dangerous in the sense that these discourses promise that the
risks, the uncertainties and the contingencies of human behaviors, dispositions
and interactions in complex settings can be objectively, scientifically or critically
identified. Once identified, various programs and interventions can then be
mobilized to regulate the dangers, the uncertainties and the contingencies of an
age of ``manufactured uncertainty'' (Giddens, 1994). Youth-at-risk discourses are,
in this sense, an instance of modern technologies of ``prevention'', technologies
which are ``overarched by a grandiose technocratic rationalizing dream of
absolute control of the accidental, understood as the irruption of the
unpredictable…
This notion of being able to identify and isolate risks results in policies and interventions being
implemented as solutions to these identifiable risks. Labels of ‘at risk’ legitimize government
intervention in the lives of young people and these institutions, such as the CSP, which
construct ‘truths’ of youths ‘at risk’ use it as a regulatory tool (Kelly, 2000:464) over young
people’s bodies, their spatial existence and as Kemshall (2008:22) notes young people’s
transitions into adulthood. It places young people as deviants and delinquents (Kelly 2000:469)
and gives legitimacy to the surveillance of populations of youth.
49
Further to this surveillance becomes even more palatable when programmes are couched the
in language of prevention. The CSP as an intervention which could prevent, reduce or deter
crime or violence can easily find its basis for implementation. When policies are implemented
and experts are allowed to enter the field, different levels of intervention are made possible, for
example in the case of the CSP data collection about crimes is made possible where perhaps
before it would not have been and through interactions some individual participants can be
assessed and labeled.
Since the introduction of “at risk” through the CSP in 2008, this terminology has been used in
two other prominent and highly advertised government interventions which have been
introduced in the Beetham Gardens namely:-
1. Making Life Important Intervention23 (launched on 7th September 2011) and
2. Hoop of Life – Sweat 2012, launched on June 30th 2012 , hosted by Afro- American
basketball player Shaquille O’Neal at a purported cost of 10 million TTD per year for 3
years24.
Discourses of risk have allowed more interventions in this community to be viewed as
acceptable and permissible by the wider society. More crime fighting policies in this area means
continued associations of criminal activity to the young men who live there and legitimacy for
interventions by the state, civil society and international organizations. It also means that the
labeling as a process of marginalization becomes reinforced and more deeply entrenched.
Partial Reality
The “at risk” discourse fails to appreciate the diversity and nuances of these young men’s
everyday lives. It has the effect of creating one image of young men; deviants who are highly
vulnerable to participating in criminal activity. I echo MacDonald and Marsh’s (2005:3)
conclusion in their examination of a UK neighbourhood that “contrary to common(-sense),
23 Speech for the launch of MLI can be found here http://www.ttembassy.org/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=87&cntnt01returnid=11424 Further information on this initiative can be found on these links to newspaper stories about this initiative can be found here http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,162983.html; http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/2012-07-01/jack-launches-%E2%80%98shaq-attack%E2%80%99-beetham ; and http://www.newsday.co.tt/features/0,162983.html
50
representations of the singularity of ‘problem youth’ in ‘problem neighbourhoods’, young
people’s lifestyles , transitions and experiences [in East Kelby] were diverse and
heterogeneous.”.
My research revealed that there is a divergence between what the “at risk” label suggests
about young men and what these young men really experience. I do not aim to be reductionist
by showing the young men in this community as victims but rather to add another piece to the
puzzle of the lives of young men in the Beetham Gardens.
“Framing theory emphasizes the ability of any entity—media, individuals, or organizations—to
delineate other people’s reality, highlighting one interpretation while de-emphasizing a less
favored one” (Papacharissi, 2008:54). The ability to frame an issue in a specific way refers to
power and power relations. Labeling of young people as “at risk” cannot exist without the
labeler, having the power to label. Power relations allow the more powerful group , in this case
the IDB and the state, to label persons and to give effect to that label.
In discussing Foucault, Mills (2003:69). indicates that “where there are imbalances of power
relations between groups of people, institutions /states, there will be a production of
knowledge” The labeling of young people in the Beetham Gardens by government institutions
and international organizations is an exercise of power which has the effect of further
marginalizing young men. But this power is not only concentrated within the remit of the state
or the IDB but rather is exercised by all members of society in the ways that they enact this
stigmatization and labeling in everyday practices.
Gallagher (2008: 399) quoting Foucault, notes that in analyzing power,
One must rather conduct an ascending analysis of power, starting, that is, from
its infinitesimal mechanisms, which each have their own history, their own
trajectory, their own techniques and tactics, and then see how these mechanisms
of power have been – and continue to be – invested, colonised, utilised, involuted,
transformed, displaced, extended etc., by ever more general mechanisms and by
forms of global domination (Foucault, 1980b: 99).
51
Foucault adds that in investigating power we must look at the point of which the exercise of
such power intersects with its target ‘where it installs itself and produces real effects’ (Foucault,
1980b: 97 as quoted in Gallagher 2008: 400).
In the interview with Abinta Clark the CAO for Beetham Gardens, she highlighted the need for
providing a fuller picture of the lives of young people in that community. She notes:
The challenge would be really changing people’s perspectives ...we really need to
show the success stories which we haven’t been able to do in the last four years
because we get wrapped up in implementation. If we find somebody to present
the success …slowly the stigma could move… it needs to be a collective
response...this community belongs to the people who live there and the society…
the people who live in this community are citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.
(Quote from interview with Abinta Clark, CAO for Beetham Gardens, 29/08/2012)
In the following sections I hope to show a wider picture of these young people’s experiences.
Seeking a Better Future
The “at risk” discourse fails to recognize that young people in this area are in fact taking steps
to continue their education with a view to getting good jobs. Three of my participants
participated in numerous skills training programmes facilitated by the government in an
attempt to gain a skill or learn a trade so that they can become self sufficient.
One young man from my sample, Rhino25, was about to embark upon another social
programme to learn videography, despite being thrown out of his last school. Another
participant, Kane26, was about to start classes for the reexamination of certain secondary school
subjects so that he could enlist in the army. This complexity is lost when we label young people
and lump them together as deviants. The participants were very much aware of the need to ‘do
25 Notes taken from interview on 14/09/2012.26 Notes taken from interview on 28/09/2012.
52
something’, to go back to school, to participate and learn a skill even though they were up
against so many deep rooted obstacles.
‘At risk’ labels fail to highlight their determination to move forward and rather only represents
them as young people who participate in criminal activities.
Resilience
Labels also gloss over young people’s resilience. Rex indicates his view on growing up in the
Beetham:
You might think we had it hard growing up here…but at the end of the day
dais(that is) what makes you strong…because if we had it easy we might na(not)
be strong…we would end up in a situation where we in a bad place and we
(would not have known) what to do…because you learn things in here that could
take you places and you will have certain knowledge about things that people
mightn’t know about …
Dem(them) don’t know ‘bout(about) going in the mang27 and catching crab and
thing , dem(them) don’t know about going in the la basse and digging up in the
rubbish … dem(them) don’t know about white sand28 ..
(Quote taken from interview with Rex on 27/08/2012)
This participant looks back on the experiences he had by virtue of where he grew up as making
him a stronger person. All of my participants alluded to this sense of resilience and the idea that
these experiences positively contributed to their development.
Abinta, the CAO for the Beetham Gardens added,
27 The ‘mang’ is the name for a specific part of the dumpsite. It is the shortened version of the word mangrove..28 White sand , is an area located behind the Trinidad and Tobago National Petroleum Marketing Company which has white sand and which the participant referred to as the Beetham Beach.
53
What I love about my young people is that they would fight…it doesn’t matter
what little they have or what they don’t have once they wake up everyday and
they have that life they will find a way to feed themselves.
(Quote taken from interview on 29/08/2012).
By framing these young people as ‘at risk’, their desires to do well, to earn a decent wage and
the use of their environment as impetus for doing so, is lost on wider society. Their diversity of
experiences becomes invisible. What framing and labeling does, is pigeonhole young people’s
lived experiences which are not only on-going but obscures very important issues (Bancroft and
Wilson, 2007: 318).
If we are able to look at the Beetham Gardens as a whole and represent it as such with both its
negative and positive aspects then positive impacts can be made in reducing the . If the lens is
widened and becomes more inclusive, change can start at least in the public’s perception of this
area. As long as interventions continue to pejoratively label and feed into the process of
negative discursive representations then their effects will continue to be limited. The label does
not only mask the attempts by the young people to make their lives better or to navigate their
experiences, it also hides how the label can result in economic marginalization.
Discrimination in the Employment Sector
Link and Phelan note (2001:371) that
an almost immediate consequence of successful negative labeling and
stereotyping is a general downward placement of a person in a status of
hierarchy. The person is connected to undesirable characteristics that reduce his
or her status in the eye of the stigmatizer...stigma has affected the structure
around the person leading the person to be exposed to a host of untoward
circumstances...
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All but one of my participants refer to discrimination in the employment sector including the
young men who I interviewed and the members of the CSP. Jerome29, a participant who lives in
the community states that no matter how well you present yourself, when employers ask
where you are from, and your response is the Beetham Gardens their response is less than
satisfactory. Joseph30 however indicated that he did not experience this discrimination when he
sought employment and was in fact currently employed.
Although one may argue that there may be several reasons why my participants may not have
been hired by prospective employers, they were adamant that the fact that they were from
Beetham Gardens was the reason they didn’t get specific jobs. This is the point at which
marginalization comes into effect and becomes evident in the unequal life chances of those
who are stigmatized.
Economic marginalization is the direct result of discrimination of these young men in the labour
market. Economic independence is still one of the main transitions in the life of a young person
to adulthood and this independence gives them control over their leisure lives and
consumption (Jones, 2009: 96-97). Consumption patterns of young people and the pressures to
have certain material goods as markers of status and acceptance into peer groups, is the same
for young men in the Beetham Gardens as for young people globally. In one of my informal
discussions with the young men, I was able to observe their interactions. Four of the
participants were teasing Joshua about his attire. It was source of a joke that Shawn had bought
his clothes at a low end clothing store known for selling knock-offs of brand name clothing and
that this was unacceptable although it was clearly visible that Shawn’s clothes were the newest
compared to the rest31.
In that same conversation, another participant, Daniel32 , kept on referring to the fact that he
had lost $200.00 TTD. Eventually, I asked him why he needed money, why was he so
29 Notes taken from interview on 28/08/2012.30 Notes taken from interview on 27/08/2012.31 Notes take from informal focus group on 14/09/2012.32 Notes taken during informal focus group on 14/09/2012.
55
preoccupied with it , in my mind Daniel was a 17 year old student and the need for this money
confused me . His response was “what anybody does need money for Miss?”
This response revealed that the pressures of capitalism and the desire for economic
independence if only for consumption needs was pertinent to these young men. Living in
Beetham Gardens where most of the residents were in the lower socio economic bracket
meant that economic independence was a real issue facing its residents. This issue is even more
relevant for young people who still hold economic independence as a means of transitioning
from youth to adulthood.
Thus if ‘post code discrimination’ (Jones, 2009:169) resulted in real obstacles to obtaining
employment, economic marginalization would be an inevitable outcome for most young people
in Beetham Gardens.
Youth unemployment is not peculiar to this community alone however and is in fact a global
issue at the moment. The International Labour Organization (ILO) has estimated that in 2010
approximately 40 % of the global unemployment rate or 75 million young people worldwide
between the ages of 15-24 were unemployed33(ILO, 2012). In a newspaper article
(Boodan,2012) recounting a recent statement made by the Minister of Tertiary Education,
indicated that unemployment of young people in Trinidad and Tobago between the ages of 15-
24 was estimated to be around 18-20%34 a figure said to be substantiated by an upcoming
labour market report. This data is still unavailable and is not disaggregated by community or
wards but if youth unemployment is already so high within the country, the labour market will
be even more difficult to break into for Beetham youth.
Currently young people are facing barriers into the labour markets, for reasons which are yet to
be officially enumerated. Despite this lack of specific data however, if a young person is having
difficulties entering the labour market generally, then this difficulty can only be exacerbated by
33 The article can be found at this link,<http://www.ilocarib.org.tt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1726:young-people-voice-employment-concerns-at-trinidad-and-tobagos-national-youth-employment-forum&catid=117:news-room&Itemid=1035>34 The link to the article can be found here http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2012-05-02/minister-fazal-karim-youth-unemployment-almost-20-cent
56
the fact that this young person also originates from Beetham Gardens, is male and is deemed
to be “at risk”. The intersectionality of age as well as where a person comes from, can result in
even more barriers to entry into the labour market. This was confirmed by Abinta, the CAO and
Ryssa the Community and Youth Specialist for the CSP who made the following statement when
asked whether the negative perceptions of the Beetham Gardens impeded the CSP’s work:
How it might impede it might be where sometimes we have … an employment
situation. For a lot of them (young people in Beetham) the presented issue is one
of bread and butter, so …employment partners, people interested in employing
people might say, you know, because you are a legitimate organization , we are
willing to hire these young people to get them to do something else and then
they might realize where the young people are coming from and it may affect
some of the opportunities that would be facilitated for the community
(Quote from Interview with Ryssa Brathwaite Tobias on 29/08/2012)
Labour market marginalization directly correlates to economic marginality. My young male
participants all referred to the need for more employment opportunities but it was clear that
the intersections of their location, age, gender and label of “at risk” makes this a difficult
transition for them.
Young People’s relative powerlessness.
Discourses of risk falsely present young men as powerful. Wyn & White note that:
The popular image of young people presenting a threat to law and order
represents young people as more powerful than they really are. Although young
people have rights as young citizens these are relatively easily denied and they
have very little to say in the institutions in which they have the most stake such as
education (1997: 11)
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The relative powerlessness of the young men in Beetham Gardens in decision-making spheres
and policy design, results in implementation of policies which do not materially improve their
situation. My participants were all aware of policies which they thought were highly ineffective
for their needs.
When I asked two of my participants about the Hoop of Life35 intervention which was launched
in the community by an Afro American basketball player, Shaquille O’Neal, they responded :-
Joseph:- them kinda (kinds of ) thing I find is disrespectful…what he [Shaquille
O’Neal] going and do for me? ..nothing.
Rex:- what you could come and tell people in a country you know nothing
about? What going and work for we in here not going and work in foreign.
Joseph:- they wasting money on that.
(Joint Interview with Rex and Joseph, 27/08/2012)
My participants felt that this intervention was money wasted and did not address their needs
for employment. For young people their lack of citizen power is further compounded by the
labels that policies and society thrust upon them and the fact that they come from the Beetham
Gardens. My participants all felt that with respect to the CSP, they didn’t feel that there was
enough consultation with them about the types of programmes that the CSP facilitates. Randy,
a participant adds
I find before they make a decision to publish something come and talk to the
people and them and hear what them say about it first …and say alright the
people and them don’t agree to that ...don’t jus make a decision and come and
palm it out on people because that is what going on with the government…
because it have real good people out here with real good plans to better the
35 The premise of this intervention is that young people from different communities compete against each other in a basketball competition. The participants are paid $250.00 weekly for 6 months , must attend a life skills course and will be thrown out of the competition if arrested. Further information can be found on the link http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Hoop_of_Life_launched-174695041.html and http://www.news.gov.tt/index.php?news=11273.
58
communities but they wouldn’t listen to you ... they will listen to a partner in the
government
Quote from Interview 1 with Randy, 27/08/2012.
Several of my participants expressed the wish that those who implement policies , to come and
deal with them ‘head on’, to come to their spaces such as the corner and to speak with them 36.
This type of interaction according to them was usually relegated to election time during
campaigns.
The CSP staff however indicated that attempts are made to involve young people in the
decision making sphere but that young people didn’t ‘want to come and sit in a room that is all
about talk’ and that there were often clashes between the adults and the young people at
these meetings, alluding to intergenerational relations in the community (Interview with
Abinta, Community Action Officer, 29/08/2012). Whilst I do believe that the CSP does attempt
to integrate young people in some aspects of the process, generally society tends to over-
estimate the power that young men within this community exercise. Young men from the
Beetham Gardens have limited access to decision making by virtue of their age and their
location.
Agency
Governmental interventions such as the CSP comprise the joinder of efforts by many agencies
such as the state and international agencies (the IDB) and non-governmental agencies whose
participation is implicit in attempts to regulate young people (Li, 2007:276). But in keeping with
Foucault’s analysis of power, power is performed and should not strictly be seen as something
enforced by the oppressor to the oppressed (Mills, 2003:36). Power can be exercised by all
persons in different ways.
This brings us to the issue of agency of these young people which is one way in which the young
people in this area may be using their power. Although this area of Foucault’s work is a bit hazy
questioning how much agency really goes into resistance (Mills, 2003:40 ) what is important for 36 Notes taken from interviews conducted on 27/08/2012 and 28/08/2012.
59
our purposes is the fact that young people on the Beetham Gardens are not merely passive
recipients of state imposed governmentality.
The theme of resistance arose when my participants alluded to participation in the last protest
which took place on June 28th 2012 and that youth participation was not uncommon in these
activities. Not attending programmes offered by the CSP or meetings held by the CSP could be
interpreted as subtle forms of resistance also. Even in my last scheduled interview with my
participants, only two participants were present, although the rest of them knew about this
meeting. I concluded in my analysis that this was one of the many ways that young people in
the area exercised their power. Participants cannot be forced to attend.
Furthermore when I asked whether the CSP could deter young people from engaging in criminal
activities, Kane37 responded “No, people will always do something on the side”. Kane alludes
here to the fact that some young people within the Beetham Gardens do in fact participate in
criminal activities and will continue to do so. In fact in my joint interview with Rex and Joseph 38,
they both agreed that some young men within the community do contribute to the public
perceptions of deviance and criminality.
Any discussion of agency however will be superficial without acknowledging that the agency of
young people within the Beetham Gardens is bounded by their location, the labels and the
discrimination they face. Like Jones (2009:172) has indicated, we must question the extent to
which young people as individuals or collectives be held responsible for their actions, action
being viewed as ‘conscious or unconscious, premeditated or impulsive or individual or
collective’, in light of the extenuating circumstances.
The label of “at risk” has made it acceptable to impose several policies and programmes on
young men within this community some of which according to them, appear to be irrelevant to
their needs. The label gives those within society a partial image of the lived realities of young
men and shrouds the processes contributing to economic marginalization that exist in the
Beetham Gardens. This does not negate the fact that young people from this community do
37 Notes taken from informal focus group on 14/09/2012.38 Notes taken from interview on 27/08/2012
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participate in criminal activities but it does show the complexities involved, complexities which
require equally complex processes to undo the damage that already has been done.
Conclusions
Young men from Beetham Gardens are increasingly facing challenges in their lives. The
intersection of age, gender and geographical location has resulted in the production and
reproduction of processes of marginalization which affect them directly. The young men
encounter diminished access to services and decision making.
The addition of a label of “at risk” into this already complex situation reinforces this
marginalization. This label implies that all young men from this community are deviating from
normative transitions into adulthood by participating in criminal behaviour.
Young men are found to be responsible for removing negative labels from themselves although
these labels have been externally affixed to them by the wider society, the state and
international organizations. The dominant focus therefore is on ‘fixing the individual’ (Te Riele,
2007:141) when the emphasis should be on rectifying the structures and processes which affect
young men and which systematically marginalize them.
Risk discourses not only label and group together young men from this community but it also
makes risks identifiable and controllable. This dynamic, results in the implementation of
programmes and policies into their lives as acceptable and legitimate. Young men’s lives in this
community are allowed to be scrutinized and probed in the name of diminishing risk and risky
behaviour. Young men’s everyday lived experiences are not shown to wider society and the
ways through which inequality is structured is left out of view.
Their relative powerlessness due to their age and their community’s history means that their
opinions on the types of interventions needed are rarely heard. Aggressive participatory
methods need to be pursued so that interventions do not have the effect of reinforcing
marginalization but assist in reducing it. All signs indicate that the “at risk” label further
reinforces the marginalization that young men from the Beetham Gardens face.
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This paper only gives a glimpse into the lives of these young men but there is an obvious need
for more research into acts of agency and the position of young women within this community.
More investigation is needed between the tensions between economic needs and self
marginalization, the politics of definitions and labels and intergenerational relations. Further
analysis of the names of the programmes such as Making Life Important and Shoot to Live can
also provide rich data.
Risk discourses need to be continuously problematized especially when applied to young men
whose relative powerlessness exposes them to processes that promote inequality or
marginality. Policies should actually reduce or eradicate these processes instead of fortifying
them.
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APPENDIX 1
Research
participant
Date of
interview
No. of formal
interviews
Interview Type Location of
interview
Abinta Clarke –
CAO
29/08/2012 1 One-on-One CSP Office
Ryssa
Brathwaite-
Tobias-
Community and
youth specialist
29/08/2012 1 One-on-One CSP Office
Rick* 13/09/2012 1 One-on-One School
Randy* 27/08/2012
28/08/2012
14/09/2012
29/09/2012
4 One-on-One; Joint Car, Street, home
of another
participant
School
Art gallery
Pizza Restaurant
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Juliet 22/08/2012 1 One-on-One Fast Food
Restaurant
Kane* 28/08/2012 1 Joint School
Joseph * 27/08/2012 1 Joint Home
Rhino* 28/08/2012
14/09/2012
29/09/2012
3 One-on-One;Joint;One-
on-One
School
Art Gallery*
Street corner; Pizza
Restaurant
Rex* 27/08/2012
28/08/2012
2 Joint Joseph’s Home;
Front yard of
Joseph’s home
Jerome* 28/08/2012 1 Joint Front yard of
Joseph’s home
Shawn* 14/09/2012 1 One-on-One Art Gallery
Shawn* ,
Kane* , Rhino* ,
Daniel*,
Anthony*
14/09/2012 1 Informal focus group Art Gallery;Park
*The Art Gallery indicates the location of the launch of the CSP, Shoot to Live photography component.
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APPENDIX 2
Invitation to Participate
Dear Intended Research Participant
My name is Aleisha Holder and I am a Masters student at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, located in the Hague Netherlands. I am currently pursuing my Masters in Development Studies with a specialization in Children and Youth and my programme requires that I must conduct research for my thesis.
I would like you to actively participate in my research in the form of a one-on-one interview /focus group. These interviews are expected to last between one (1) to two (2) hours. I may be required to do a follow-up interview but this will only occur if you are willing to do so. A transcript of the interview can be provided to you within a reasonable time after the interview should your require such.
It is my hope that your participation in this research process will contribute to the growing body of Caribbean Academic research and will hopefully give insight into the workings of policies and their effectiveness. This research may have the potential for policy analysis and reform.
I have attached a proposed abstract of my research and a consent form, should you wish to participate in my research, kindly read both documents thoroughly and sign the attached consent form. Please note that your participation is voluntary. If at any time during the research process you do not wish to
68
continue participating you are free to withdraw from the research process. I would appreciate that if you, in fact wish to discontinue your participation please indicate this clearly to me.
I sincerely thank you for taking the time to read this information sheet and please find the attached proposed abstract and consent form.
Kind Regards,
Aleisha HolderCandidate for Masters in Development StudiesSpecialization in Children and Youth StudiesInternational Institute of Social Studies Erasmus university of RotterdamKortenaerkad 122518AX Den Haag, The Netherlands.
Abstract
Dear Intended Research Participant,
Please note that my abstract herein provided is meant to be provisional and may change subject to data collection and fieldwork.
The way ‘youth’ is socially constructed has a tremendous impact on policy design and implementation. Further to this, policy interventions are not only a response to social constructions of young people but can in themselves be productive, that is shaping the ways in which young people are understood and perceived by wider society.
In my research, I will attempt to look at the ways in which a specific policy intervention, the Citizen Security Programme constructs ‘youth’ in the Beetham Gardens Community, an urban neighbourhood located in Trinidad and Tobago and what this means for the young people to whom the intervention applies. I will also look at the constructions of youth pursuant to other government interventions and explore some of the implications of these constructions.
This research will look at the interplay between discourse and policy. I will explore this by conducting interviews with coordinators of the program intervention and the intended users of the programme , the young people themselves.
.
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Consent Form
Researcher : Aleisha Holder
Academic Programme: Masters Degree in Development Studies
Specialization Children and Youth Studies
Institute :International Institute of Social Studies
Erasmus University of Rotterdam
Den Haag, The Netherlands
Contact Information : [email protected]; [email protected]
1-868-
By participating in my research you are consenting to
the use of any part/all of the interview for my research thesis, academic journal entries and any ancillary purpose.
the interview being audio recorded to note-taking by me during the interview
70
to the use of your name in my research unless you specifically request to be anonymous, to the publication of any or all of your interview text for my research thesis or any other
publication affiliated with this research or used for future reserach
Please note that your participation is voluntary and at any time during the research process you do not wish to continue participating you are free to withdraw from the research process. If you in fact wish to discontinue your participation please indicate this clearly to me.
Please Tick the boxes
I confirm that I have read and understand the information sheet for the above study and have had the opportunity to ask questions.
I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time, without giving reason.
I agree to take part in the above study.
Please sign below to demonstrate your agreement to full participation in this research process.
Name of Research Participant:
Job Title:
Date :
Signature:
Name of Researcher:
Date :
Signature
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