ABSTRACT
This chapter will work with the writings of Walter Benjamin to suggest different modes of interpretation of gang communities, drawing from Benjamin’s politico-theological framing of state sovereignty and law. The chapter is divided into three sections – one focusing on Benjamin’s writing on youth, enculturation, and epistemologies of experimentation; a second focusing on his writing on law and policing; and a third focusing on his writing on political time and temporalities of disruption. Together, these sections will theorize the political dimension of criminalized communities constituting themselves as gangs while offering a way into reading Benjamin’s work that is a guide for non-experts.
