Punk, Law, Resistance

2015

Mike Dines is seeking contributions from the wide spectrum of musicology and social sciences for an edited text on the anarcho-punk scene of the 1980s that will reflect upon its origins, its music(s), its identity, its legacy, its membership and circulation. Seven years ago, I was awarded my PhD for my research into the emergence of the anarcho-punk scene and, to my surprise, there are still no academic texts that fully unpack this fascinating movement and its politics. As such, I would like to put out a call for proposals in the hope that we might rectify this omission: and thus raising questions as to how we can define aesthetically, culturally, politically and ideologically the concept and meaning of the anarcho-punk scene. As such, the volume has guaranteed contributions from the likes of Andy Worthington, author of The Battle of the Beanfield and Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion and Russell Bestley, whose book The Art of Punk is due for release. Furthermore, George McKay, Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Research Centre from the University of Salford will preface the volume. Perhaps the foremost academic in the field of alternative cultures and protest movements, George is the author of a number of books including Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties and Glastonbury: A Very English Fair.

Punk & Post-Punk , 2017

Like the country itself, the Indonesian punk/underground scene is rich with the diversity of its members. It was once known for its radical Left activism against the authoritarian state of the New Order (1966–98) in the late 1990s, but following political change in 1998 and the subsequent period of Reformasi, the image of the Indonesian punk/underground scene has gone through a shift. Its intersection with religious conservatism following the fall of the New Order creates a perception that Indonesian punk has become susceptible to what some people call ‘Islamic fundamentalism’. This is reinforced by the emergence of religious under- ground collectives and hijrah groups that work on Islamic proselytization in the scene. This article examines the state of the Indonesian punk/underground scene following the decline of punk’s Left activism, the expansion of neo-liberal capitalism, and the rise of religious conservatism in post-authoritarian Indonesia. This article suggests that the birth of religious underground collectives and hijrah groups within the underground music scene is a result of the absence of a coherent political Left within the subculture and the high financial and social cost of maintaining underground culture and ideology.

Journal of Pedagogic Development, Vol 5, No 3 (2015): JPD 5(3)

This article explores the many contradictions and complexities surrounding the theory and practice of a ‘punk pedagogy.’ It begins with a contextualisation, delineating notions of origin using a framework of anarchist models of pedagogy, teaching and learning in subcultural contexts (in this case, the new age traveller movement of the 1980s and 1990s), and the very beginnings of terminology and definition through Estrella Torrez’s chapter ‘Punk Pedagogy: Education for Liberation and Love.’ As a reiteration of practice, case studies of two current practitioners are explored (Tony McMahon in Australia and Rylan Kafara from Canada), unpacking differences and similarities in punk-led models of teaching and learning. In conclusion, the importance of punk as teacher and facilitator is explored, examining links between the autobiographical experience of subcultural membership and punk as a tool for learning. This includes looking at how learning within a subculture draws upon the experiential and heuristic in areas such as political affiliations, lifestyle choices and musical preference.

On the 35th anniversary of The Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, punk seems to be everywhere: books, documentaries, exhibitions and festivals. But what version of punk is depicted by mass media? What message emerges from the commodification of punk into British society? This study aims to define the tangible and intangible value of punk, and to show how it is and has been represented in British society. In order to investigate this phenomenon, in the first chapter the author shows the result of an ethnographic research conducted in Camden Town, where he points out the differences between the original meaning of punk symbols and its current incarnation In the second chapter, the DIY (Do it Yourself) ethic, which many consider the most important intangible legacy of punk is object of discussion. The author attempts to establish connections between punk culture and digital media, punk and capitalism and, lastly, punk and graffiti and street art.

History Workshop Journal

ABSTRACT

Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies, 2013

Punk and anarchism are inextricably linked. The connection between them is expressed in the anarchistic rhetoric, ethics, and practices of punk, and in the huge numbers of activist anarchists who were first politicised by punk. To be sure, this relationship is not straightforward, riven as it is with tensions and antagonisms—but its existence is irrefutable. This article looks back to ‘early punk’ (arbitrarily taken as 1976-1980), to identify the emergence of the anarchistic threads that run right through punk’s (ever advancing) history. However, it must be stressed that any claim to being ‘definitive’ or ‘complete’ is rejected here. Punk, like anarchism, is a hugely diverse and multifarious entity. Too often, authors leaning on the crutch of determinism reduce punk to a simple linear narrative, to be weaved through some fanciful dialectic. In opposition to this, Proudhon’s concept of antimony is employed to help contextualise punk’s beguiling amorphousness.

This thesis analyses the concepts of affectivity and abjection in relation to contemporary art practice. Its main focus is the strategic use of notions of abjection by artists and theorists in relation to "abject art", particularly in Australia, America and Britain, from 1989 to 1998. In particular, the thesis examines the limits of the application of Julia Kristeva"s theory of abjection in art practice and discourse. It argues that the development of a strategy of abjection in art presupposes that "abject" bodily matter has a predetermined capacity to generate affect. This presumed capacity to affect audiences is regarded as investing the "abject" with a kind of "guarantee" of political efficacy. Thus, abjection has been understood as a template for a repeatable transgressive strategy for contemporary art practice.