Vandalism as a Symbolic Act in Free Zones

• The concept of vandalism is analyzed as a symbolic act. An analysis of vandalism from a situational-positivistic, or a motivational-psychological, approach hardly gives an understanding of vandalism as a meaningful individual and social act. A humanistic and cultural perspective can supply ways to understand a nonprescribed behavior such as vandalism. The original meaning of vandalism is plundering and laying waste of a civilization's symbols and environment. This appropriation of physical environment also occurs in the industrialized societies' urban environment and then often is perceived as motiveless. "Free zones" develop in societies where norms and obligations are neutralized. Vandalism is nonprescribed in that it appears in these free zones where norms, obligations, utility, and common sense are switched off. The environment is "marked" by damaging or destroying objects to change the message of the physical milieu. Vandalism is a gesture of "negative honor," which reflects a complex of feelings. Vandalism comprises two sides of an autonomy problem: to be isolated from an unwanted membership (juvenile vandalism) and to be free of an unwanted outside position (adult vandalism). An essential question is which methodological and theoretical concepts a researcher in the social sciences should use to discover the rationality of vandalism and to make it comprehensible.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

sociologi

sociology

symbolic

vandalism

free zone

negative honor

autonomy

humanistic perspective.

history

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kap (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)