Dr. Jonathan Ilan, Senior Lecturer an der University of Kent und Autor des Buches „Understanding Street Culture“ (2014), wird am 20. Oktober einen Gastvortrag am Institut für Kriminologische Sozialforschung der Universität Hamburg halten. Alle Interessierten sind herzlich zu der Veranstaltung eingeladen. Details sind der unten stehenden Ankündigung zu entnehmen.
Understanding Street Culture: From criminal lifestyles to urban cool in the global ghetto
This talk reflects on the role of ’street culture ‚, the being, behaviours and beliefs of the most excluded of the urban poor in the cultivation of both criminal lifestyles and urban expressivity across the globe. Recognizing that the ‚defiant stance‘ of the street criminal echoes many of the traits long considered as ‚cool‘ within the consumer culture, the talk explores the complicated ways in which the urban poor are simultaneously included in and excluded from socio-economic life.
Deploying analyses at the macro, meso and micro levels, the talk considers the ways in which globalization and neoliberalism; expressive practices and cultural meanings; as well as affective and emotional responses, characterise both the behaviour of street cultural practitioners and how it is perceived. Using the theoretical device of the street-cultural spectrum, the talk explains how street culture can be a form of cultivated, prosthetic cool for the included and a means of survival for the most socio-economically excluded. In a world of ever-widening inequality, global integration and media saturation, it becomes important to understand why hanging around can become criminalized in some contexts whereas drug-dealing becomes valorised in others, whilst at the same time images of urban criminality are used to sell everything from pop music to hamburgers.
Understanding Street Culture. Poverty, Crime, Youth and Cool
How do poverty, youth and crime relate to the concept of being ‚cool‘? Jonathan Ilan presents a unique, theoretically informed overview of street culture in various parts of the world – its origins, functions, manifestations and appeal – examining both its bearing on criminal lifestyles and on the cultivation of ‚cool.‘
Drawing on contemporary research and original examples to evidence new ways of thinking about street culture – from the favelas of Brazil to housing projects in the USA – the text locates street culture within its particular social, cultural and economic contexts. Covering diverse subjects from brutal violence to contemporary fashion it explores the ways in which street culture is intertwined with processes of social exclusion and inclusion.
An in-depth and even-handed guide to understanding the practices, styles and struggles associated with a particular section of the socio-economically disadvantaged, this text stands as an invaluable resource for students and academics across a range of disciplines, including youth studies, urban studies, criminology, sociology, cultural studies and geography.
Das Buch ist in Auszügen auch über Google Books verfügbar.
