Disputes and Going Concerns in an Institution for “Troublesome” Boys

Abstract

Everett C. Hughes’s classic concept of a “going concern” should stand for both entire institutions and for chains of activities within institutions. In this article the author explores this expanded version of Hughes’s concept to show how staff and residents in a youth care setting interweave everyday concerns—meals, lessons, breaks, meetings, or other mundane but concerted projects—with interpersonal disputes. The author thereby offers a more nuanced understanding of how antagonist actors in institutions invoke daily affairs. The author also raises questions about the conditions under which adults can impose concerns for youth in care to preserve social order and the conditions under which youth can make trouble to criticize adults’ imposed concerns.