Possible selves. Gang passages, projective imaginations, and self-transformations

• Belonging to a criminal gang often strongly influences members’ identities, particularly their self-perceptions and social roles. Entering or leaving a gang may challenge members’ understandings of the meaning and structure of their lives and threaten their sense of control. The aim of this study was to explore how members narrate these transitions and whether such stages may be seen as liminal passages. This article draws in particular on the theory of possible selves, which suggests that people change through experiencing their present selves as incomplete versions of their anticipated selves. We analysed data from two qualitative research projects on gang exits using content analysis from interviews with clients and employees in one Swedish exit programme and clients at correctional facilities or probation services. In addition, data consists of interviews with employees from these. The analysis suggests that while gang members narrate entry as a continuation towards understanding themselves and their potential place in the world, leaving the gang implies entry into a liminal terrain with fewer role models and possible projective imaginings of their future selves. Such liminal passages are analytically linked to a need for role models and experienced guides to manifest a way forward and support defectors in the process of leaving. Gang leavers need ‘ceremonial masters’, in this case professionals with experience of exiting processes, to support them in imagining and creating new lives and new selves outside of the gang. 

Subject headings

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

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

Keyword

Criminal gangs; exit processes; possible selves; identity transformation; liminality

Socialt arbete

Social Work

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)