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The integration of the urban people to the city is on the one hand the integration of the physical and natural structure of the city with human element, and on the other hand, integration of urban people with each other by acquiring urban culture. City streets are mostly inhabited by street residents, which include street vendors, who sell products changing from food to textile, arts and crafts or music in an affordable price to city dwellers, and also people who, for economical, psychological or sociological reasons, live in the streets such as beggars and homeless people. If the spirit of a city can exist within the common production and living space of the people who make that city, then it means that the cities lose their souls to exclude those who choose to live on the streets or those who earns their living on the street. If no one can exist without the other, then the existence of the mainstream labour market of the city would only be possible by accepting street residents, whether the ones who choose to live in the streets or earns a living in the streets, who it has marginalised by ignoring and pushing outside the orthodox norms of the city life.

This paper aims to discuss the emergence of the contemporary Urban Street Gang (USG) on Merseyside. In terms of gang scholarship in the UK, Merseyside has been greatly neglected despite regular reports in national mainstream media that suggest Merseyside USGs represent some of the most criminally active and violent members in the UK.

A specific methodology has been omitted because the author while providing a viewpoint from Hesketh (2018), also wishes to encapsulate observations from the remaining two pieces of research conducted on Merseyside (Smithson et al., 2009; Robinson, 2018). For this reason, a summary of the methods used in each of the three studies is provided.

The paper will highlight observations drawn from all three research studies that were prevalent with USG members throughout the Merseyside county at the time of each study. They include aspects surrounding territoriality, belonging and identity through dress style as well as USG structures and motivation for joining. In particular, the paper will address also address the role of drugs which has transformed the structural make-up of many Merseyside USGs from relatively loosely knit-street corner groups involved in anti-social behaviour (ASB) to more structural-deviant entrepreneurial enterprises.

The paper calls for more research to be carried out on Merseyside. Limitations would include the omission of young women in each of the three studies.

The practical implications are as follows: a need to focus on the impact of bridging within excluded communities; a need to focus on emphasising that drug dealing is a crime that carries serious consequences, and not a form of work (grafting); a need to focus on young women and criminal involvement; and a need to concentrate on developing strategies that counter the allure and attraction of risk-taking behaviour.

The paper addresses the impact of social exclusion and the need for equality to counter young people becoming involved in criminality and gangs as well as adult organised crime groups.

The paper is based on what have been so far the only three in-depth studies carried out on Merseyside.

Purpose – UK urban state schools have recently experienced increased pressure to improve pupil performance levels and punitive policies appear to be one way of dealing with “problematic” young people. While some are permanently excluded for serious acts, others, who are by comparison less problematic, are unofficially “excluded” and referred to off-site educational provision (OSEP) where they receive reduced timetables and unchallenging courses. This research study set out to examine why 20 young people were “unofficially” excluded from school and their progress in OSEP.

Methodology – The study made use of ethnographic methods with 20 excluded young people in one south London borough in the UK. The research was undertaken from March 2009 to August 2009.

Findings – This chapter shows how “unofficial” exclusionary processes, to which these urban young people are exposed, have implications for their identity, self-worth and lifestyles, and makes them increasingly vulnerable to crime and victimization. The chapter makes use of labeling perspectives to understand the significance of the social reaction to deviant labels young people receive in school (Becker, 1953) and how they respond as a consequence (Lemert, 1972).

Increasingly, punitive policies on ‘poblematic’ pupils are implemented in poor‐performing UK urban state schools. While some are permanently excluded and referred to local authority educational alternatives, others are unofficially ‘excluded’ and referred to other forms of off‐site educational centres, where pupils receive a significantly reduced timetable, undertake unchallenging courses and are unlikely to return to school. Based on an ethnographic research project with 20 excluded young people in one south London borough, this paper will discuss what happens to these young people after their ‘exclusion’ from school. I will suggest that this form of unofficial ‘exclusion’ has significant life implications for these young people, contributing not only to their social exclusion, but also to their increased exposure to crime and victimisation. Moreover, their life options are truncated despite the efforts that they may make otherwise.

Students will be able to: describe the entrepreneurial traits required for successful business venturing; evaluate the entrepreneurial risks associated with a rapid business expansion in the early start-up phase of an entrepreneurial venture, especially in crisis; select and defend appropriate management systems that will contribute to the sustainability of a business post the crisis and rapid expansion; and evaluate the online social media optimisation strategies.

In July 2019, Lekau Sehoana launched branded sneakers called Drip. It took Lekau six weeks to sell the first 600 pairs of shoes from his car boot, not having applied any robust marketing strategies. During the interactions with customers, it became clear that there was a demand for a new South African sneakers brand. In December of the same year, he manufactured and within a few days, sold 1,200 sneakers. This rapid achievement was enough confirmation for Lekau that there was a need for locally manufactured and branded shoes. Based on this success, Lekau started to consider the launch of his own business. However, during the process of the formal launch, the world was suddenly experiencing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. During the planning stage regarding the mode of operation and the full business launch, in March 2020, South Africa was placed into the Covid-19 Alert Level 5 lockdown, complicating the decision-making process even further. Despite the extremely severe lockdown regulations that lasted more than a year, in May 2021, Lekau had already managed to open 11 stores in reputable malls and sold hundred thousands of his sneakers. This instant success, putting pressure on the manufacturing ability, distribution and costing structure, led to Lekau becoming concerned about having grown and still growing too fast too soon during a pandemic. His concern was what would happen when the country would move back to normal, without the constraints caused by the lockdown, would he be able to sustain the growth and how would he achieve this, and how would he be able to manage the fast-growing venture?

Entrepreneurship, Innovation, General Management and Marketing courses at the Postgraduate Diploma and Masters level.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CCS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Urban sociological research posits a strong correlation between social isolation and the growth in illicit activities of street culture, namely the drug trade and violent gang activities. However, in this article we offer an explanation for why, even in the absence of extreme poverty and social isolation from mainstream institutions, youths in Cambridge, Massachusetts feel vulnerable to illicit street cultural activities. We also offer an explanation for why these youths perceive the effects of social dislocation to be similar to that experienced by youths from larger central cities. As we will elaborate below, some students in Cambridge are affected by illicit street cultural activities because: (1) social dislocation is a relative phenomenon and not merely an absolute phenomenon as described by William J. Wilson; (2) there is a social dislocation spill‐over effect from larger central cities that intensifies or amplifies the experiences of youths in the relatively poorer neighborhoods of Cambridge; (3) and some youths, from stable working‐class or wealthier neighborhoods in Cambridge, view involvement in the illicit activities of street culture as a reputable means of gaining peer respect through status group affiliation.

Graffiti and street art have become a universal, intercultural and multidisciplinary urban phenomenon. The contribution of scientific research has greatly increased knowledge about this peculiar culture that has transformed the way we view and experience the city. The general objective of this chapter is the description of a framework for community development, focused on young people, using graffiti and street art culture as an aggregating resource for social inclusion, cultural entrepreneurship and empowerment. The identification of a set of tangible and intangible assets linked to the creation of cultural synergies for the benefit of young citizens provides a model that may be employed for the social and economic progress of local communities. This chapter also provides a macro and micro environmental analysis intended to establish guidelines for the implementation of entrepreneurial projects for the cultural development of diverse social settings. In this sense, the examples of distinct cities, such as Lisbon, Heerlen and Toronto, demonstrate that their dynamics around street art culture are a challenge for engagement in effective socio-economic constructions. Similarly, the academic research project StreetArtCEI provides not only the scientific knowledge but also resources for the community to use in entrepreneurial actions.

This chapter develops Lefebvre’s concept of rhythmanalysis to investigate the ways super-diversity comes to life in the everyday city through the intersection of the spatial and temporal. The chapter explores the multicultural intimacies of streets in a London neighbourhood through a close ethnographic focus on rhythms and atmospheres using slow-motion video. The research contributes to an emerging field of visual ethnographic scholarship by presenting slow-motion video as a method to explore the ‘presence’ (Lefebvre, 2004) of super-diversity and conviviality on the street.

I argue that in slowing down the encounters of the street, slow-motion video shows the often overlooked sensible and affective elements of super-diverse urban space, the mundane interactions between bodies, materials and technologies that create a form of ‘convivial affect’. I argue that these everyday encounters are shaped by a situated politics of difference and yet are also mediated by wider rhythms and atmospheres, contributing to a sense of ‘social time’. I draw attention to both the human and non-human elements of the streets. These material and technological elements can uncover the wider discourses and circulatory regimes of atmospheres in urban super-diverse neighbourhoods, focussing on their relation to broader flows of capital, forms of postcolonial culture and translocality.

This research has implications for how we understand super-diversity and its manifestations in urban space. It encourages policymakers and academics to recognise the affective human and non-human encounters that are a crucial aspect of conviviality, the everyday ways we live together with difference.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the “event” of the construction of Naguib Mahfouz Square. Drawing on the memory of Gamaet-Aldowel-AlArabyia Street, it attempts to uncover the socio-cultural structures inherited in the Egyptian urban street.

This study adopts Foucauldian discourse on institutions of “knowledge and authority” to approach the power relations between the actors involved. This discourse was constructed through in-depth, unstructured interviews with architects and involved government personnel as well as other archival resources that included national newspapers and magazines.

This discourse reflected an institutional controversy between these actors over the perception and design of the Egyptian street, highlighting the alienation of the designer, and the user/lay-people, from the urban institution. Naguib Mahfouz Square presented a considerable deviation from the established norms of street design in Egypt at that time through its commemoration of a contemporary figure in literature, the architect’s involvement in the design process and the unfencing of urban space. This event thus questions the perception of the urban street beyond our socio-cultural inheritance, and towards street design as a performative urban act that embraces the everyday activities of lay-people in the street.

The paper utilises Foucauldian discourse on power to approach a case study of an urban event and space in Egypt, which has not previously been investigated thoroughly. It thus holds potential towards the resolution of inherited conflict between the urban street and the urban institution.