Abstract
Given the methodological and substantive relevance of this work, we commissioned two reviews from both sides of the Atlantic.
In her captivating monograph, Sandra Bucerius reports from the streets of Frankfurt, Germany, to portray a group of young, marginalized street dealers whose business takes place in a sometimes hostile environment. Hanging out with them for over five years, Bucerius effectively gained an insider perspective into the social contexts through which they navigate. Since the Chicago school, the tradition of deep ethnography has been more firmly established in US criminology and, with a few notable exceptions, this type of ethnographic fieldwork is seldom seen in a European context.
In contrast to many male ethnographers in this tradition, Bucerius downplays the risks and dangers of her fieldwork. As the only woman among a group of male drug dealers, she had to constantly negotiate her position; this included facing threats of rape and, at times, being ignored. Bucerius’ subjects were Muslim men who did not believe that women belonged among them. While conducting such fieldwork is in itself impressive, Bucerius’ work presents even more important insights into the lives of those she studied. Once she became accepted, Bucerius offered the young men advice about sex and relationships, and was perceived in a role somewhere between a friend and a sister. While male ethnographers can more easily enter into a masculine game reiterating street stereotypes, a more multifaceted picture emerges from the dealers’ interactions with a woman. In the methods discussion, Bucerius makes a strong case for her role as a ‘trusted outsider’. She explains that, in her fieldwork, being a middle-class, law-abiding, white woman actually worked to her advantage.
Unwanted presents nuanced and thick descriptions that only a truly good ethnography can extract. The Muslim immigrant drug dealers are not presented in simplistic binary categories—black-and-white, good-or-bad—or as representing a ‘street code’ or ‘code of decency’. Instead, they are presented as complex and multifaceted. They are caring and rational, with a sense of humour—but can also be brutal, lazy and demonstrate a deeply inconsistent approach to life. The reader may be upset by some of their attitudes and frustrated when they squander opportunities, but they will most likely also feel deeply sorry for them.
To understand this particular group of Muslim men, its setting in the German context is paramount. They are heavily marginalized, most evidently seen in the discriminatory streaming practices in schools and the denial of German citizenship. Though they were born in Germany, these young men have never received German passports and do not have access to the social rights of German citizenship. They constantly risk deportation to a country where they have never lived. Such stresses alienate them from mainstream society and further add to their resentment of ‘the system’.
Until now, the dominant literature of this field is set in a US or UK context, therefore studies from other contexts such as this are particularly welcome. Yet in that regard, a possible criticism of the book is that Bucerius’ observations and discussions might have been more explicitly related to the wider literature on street culture, drug dealing and marginalization - particularly to contemporary European research on these themes. This would have highlighted the work’s original contributions more clearly as it is not always obvious which points represent observations and interpretations from the standard literature, and which are new ideas, insights and observations. Most of the original contributions—of which there are many—emerge from the unusual position of the researcher in the field and the sheer duration of her fieldwork. The author’s theoretical approach and the unique contexts of Germany and the local Bockenheim district in which the study is set also open up for new perspectives.
In a Northern European context, the street dealers’ integration within the formal economy has never been so thoroughly described. The young men co-operated with café and restaurant owners, cab drivers and doctors. They also had an informal agreement with the police that law enforcement personnel would not enter the dealers’ community centre hang out. As long as regular customers did not enter the centre, and the young men stayed off the street, the community centre became a ‘free zone’ for both storing drugs and organizing sales. Moreover, in contrast to much of the literature on the topic, Bucerius describes how returning convicts were treated with scepticism. Whereas serving a prison sentence may be seen as a sign of trust and commitment in some contexts, on the streets of Frankfurt it invoked distrust and a sense of failure. One of the most interesting characteristics of this group of drug dealers was their devotion to the values of moderation and pragmatism, and that their primary interest was small-scale business. Not attracting the attention of the police was an important part of this.
Such ideology came to the fore most vividly in Bucerius’ description of the dealers’ relationship with older-generation drug dealers. These older dealers included former leaders, organizers and ‘hot shots’, but the younger dealers showed them little admiration or respect. Instead, the young drug dealers emphasized that they used drugs less and were less violent and more business-oriented than these older dealers. This may have been part of a learning process insofar as the older dealers’ business mistakes included becoming too big and too violent, inviting large scale police crackdowns. It is also possible that the business ideology of neo-liberalism is outplaying a more respect-oriented, violent street culture in the Frankfurt drug market. Although Bucerius makes much out of the impact of Islam, the moderate business approach seems to be the most important culture at play. Supposedly Muslim values were used frequently in retrospective neutralizations of dealing, but the moderate and pragmatic business ideology was decisive in drug market action.
The young men’s symbolic boundary work described throughout the book is fascinating. Again, the importance of religion and a particular dealing ideology is emphasised. The differences between the younger and older dealers and between Muslim and non-Muslim were important to the young men. Distinctions are drawn similarly towards students and Eastern Germans. One of the few times the dealers identify as Germans is in comparison to the Eastern Germans, where they state that they are at least ‘more German than they are’. Their identification with the Bockenheim district is also fascinating. Similar to tendencies in an increasingly global street culture, these dealers’ sense of identity seems to reside in their local neighbourhoods. The author cleverly explains how this solves two problems for these young men. By identifying with their local neighbourhood they are able to express their sense of belonging in Germany and that they are not foreigners, yet they can also measure some distance between themselves and Germans and their parents’ country of origin.
Bucerius has written a gripping and thought-provoking book based on truly remarkable fieldwork that I recommend to anyone interested in good ethnography. Unfortunately, this short review allows mention of only a few of the book’s major contributions. Hopefully Unwanted will have an impact far beyond the circles of researchers interested in immigration, crime and street culture. In these times where the focus is often on the problems of Islamic extremism, Bucerius’ study provides another perspective. Although these young men continuously justified their dealing in relation to religion, it seemed that a Muslim marriage and living a life as a decent and moral Muslim was primarily a way of quitting dealing and leaving behind destructive behaviours.