Critical Analysis of Sudanese Gangs

C​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‍​ritically analyse a particular ‘moral panic’ about young people eg ‘Sudanese gangs’. Provide some critical analysis of the ways this issue is constructed, drawing on both establishment and critical theories in your analysis. Based on your analysis provide some suggestions for a way forward in resolving this moral panic. • Essay notes The aim is to focus on an issue that there is a moral panic about. It could be a narrower issue, but it connects to a broader ‘moral concern’ eg a moral panic about teenage sexting connects to moral concerns about the vulnerability of young women, it also connects to bigger panics about social media. Remember in the notes what a moral panic is. It is an issue in which the media demonises certain groups as being deviant and a threat to social and moral order. A threat to moral values. Briefly discuss the issue and examine why it constitutes a moral panic ie what values does it ‘threaten’. Eg youth unemployment threatens the socially held value of working and being self sufficient and contributing to society through paying taxes. Then discuss how young people are constructed in the context of this moral panic – are they threats, are they victims (or both). Draw on establishment theories to help you analyse these constructions, ie do ideas about identity and role confusion feature in the construction. To what extent is the construction drawing on functionalist ideas about who young people are and what their roles are etc. eg think about how young people are constructed in the context of becoming ‘fu​‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‍‍‍​nctional’ workers. Think about role models and concerns about intergenerational unemployment. Think about notions of young people being dependent, rather than transitioning into employment etc. Also to what extent are the solutions proposed to resolve the issue drawing on establishment ideas eg role models, or control measures. Think about the impacts of these constructions and the solutions proposed eg the discourse of ‘dole bludger’ what has that done to young people – eg the tightening of access to unemployment benefits Then look at the moral panic issue through a different lens, a more critical lens. How might young people be constructed differently, how might the issue be constructed differently and how might the solutions be constructed differently using critical theories eg if you change the discourse around young people and employment what changes in the way the issue is constructed might be possible? Think about social generation theory and the way society is changing and young people are adapting to a more flexible workforce. Draw on structural theories to think about how unemployment and poverty happen and why these issues serve a purpose for the powerful – therefore how can young people be blamed for their own unemployment etc etc the task sheet is about the issues of moral panic issues and young people are seen a threat to societies and the “Sudanese gangs in Australia seen as moral panic issues in Australia