Punk Rock and the Politics of Place: Building a Better Tomorrow [Hardcover]

This book is an ethnographic investigation of punk subculture as well as a treatise on the importance of place: a location with both physical form and cultural meaning. Rather than examining punk as a sound or a style as many previous works have done, it investigates the places that the subculture occupies and the cultural practices tied to those spaces. Since social groups need spaces of their own to practice their way of life, this work relates punk values and practices to the forms of their built environments. As not all social groups have an equal ability to secure their own spaces, the book also explores the strategies punks use to maintain space and what happens when they fail to do so.

Part I: Introduction  1. A Place for Punk  Part II: Punk Subculture  2. Are the Kids Alright?: The Trouble with Youth Culture Studies  3. Whats the Point of Punk?  Part III: Punk and Place  4. The Significance of Place  5. Locating Punk Space: From Bars and Clubs to Cellars and Squats  6. Organizing Punk Music Venues  Part IV: Conclusion  7. Building a Better Tomorrow: Lessons Learned from the Venue.  Afterword.  Appendices  Appendix A: Researching Punk and Place.  Appendix B: Interview Schedule.  Appendix C: Internet Forums Used in Recruiting Participants.  Appendix D: Overview of Observed Music Spaces.  Appendix E: Texts Analyzed.

This book is an investigation of punk subculture. However, unlike previous books that have attempted to do so through the sounds or styles of punk, this book examines the subculture from a spatial perspective, exploring the built environment of punk and the cultural practices associated with that environment and - in the process lC$