Music is a Place: Oprys and the Rural Working-Class Constitution of Public Space

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-399
Author(s):  
Liza Sapir Flood
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Country Music ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Music Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Trends ◽  
Cultural Order

Abstract“Oprys” are public musicking events found in Appalachia and beyond. They facilitate regular embodied sociality between strangers and friends in a region often characterized by the social fallout of neoliberal economic trends. Drawing on ethnographic research in Tennessee and elsewhere, I show that oprys constitute rural working-class public space where participants negotiate a precarious cultural order through the affordances of live country music performance. But political discourse in these spaces is articulated primarily through embodied, performative, and aesthetic realms which are not captured in a delimited and classed notion of discourse as primarily text or talk. As such, oprys offer a corrective to our understanding of what counts as discursive contestation. I foreground two particular cultural imperatives that structure oprys: participation and accommodation. These imperatives produce a socio-cultural event that characteristically refuses the monetization of space and privileges dialogic sociality over the production of artistic sound. Approaching oprys through the frame of “counterpublic” reveals a different way of imagining public space, public music making and sociality, and the terrain of political discourse.

The Intimate Nostalgia of Diné Country Music

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina M. Jacobsen
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Country Music ◽  
Navajo Nation ◽  
Music And Language ◽  
Chief Justice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Attachment To Place

The introduction examines how Navajos strategically use sound, and speech and song in particular, in their social spaces and provides a history of country music performance on the Navajo Nation. Through a dual ethnographic focus on music and language, I consider how some expressions of Navajo identity are flexible and negotiated, while others—for example, an affective attachment to place and the lived experience of being from what Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall called a “domestic dependent nation”—are private, nonnegotiable, and often not shared in public contexts such as bars and chapter houses at all. Thus, musical and linguistic performances of Navajoness—also sometimes locally parsed in the broader frames of being Native, Indian and, less often, as “indigenous”—are publicly celebrated. Other expressions of identity—for example the culturally intimate use of the Navajo term for a working-class rube from the “sticks” known as a “jaan”—are elided or hidden from an outsider’s gaze.

scholarly journals Living in a leisure town: residential reactions to the growth of popular tourism in Southend, 1870–1890

Urban History ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID CHURCHILL
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Social Perceptions ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
The Social ◽  
Resort Towns ◽  
The Town

ABSTRACT:While historical interest in the seaside has grown appreciably in recent times, much of the literature remains preoccupied with issues specific to resort towns. This article examines the social dynamics of the seaside town more broadly, through a study of Southend residents in the 1870s and 1880s. It analyses their discussions of working-class tourists and the industries which catered for them, before examining attempts to regulate the use of public space in the town. This is a study of rapid urbanization in a small town, and how social perceptions and relations were reconfigured in this context.

scholarly journals New working class as a political subject

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. V. Gavrilyuk ◽  
V. V. Malenkov
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Subjectivity ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
Political Subject ◽  
Political Status ◽  
The Social

The authors consider the new working class as consisting of both industrial workers and employed in the service sector. The article aims at identifying changes in the social-political status of the new working class and at describing the civil-political component of its political subjectivity. The authors attempt to theoretically reconstruct the idea of the working class as a political subject. The first part of the article presents conceptual approaches to the analysis of the working class as a political subject. The authors identify three periods: 1) classical works that laid the foundation for the study of the working class as a political subject and its special historical role; 2) studies of the marginal political status of the working class in Western countries, when leading theorists described the transformation of workers into an object of manipulation in the era of mass communications and the widespread consumerism ideology; 3) works of contemporary authors (including the new working class studies) opposing the policy of the traditional industrial working class and the new working class exclusion from the social-political space, which is pursued by the ruling class of the neoliberal international. The empirical part of the article describes the political subjectivity of the working class in Russia and its position in the political space at the institutional and individual levels. Despite the underrepresentation of workers in politics, since 2010, we have witnessed a return of the working class to the public space. The representative survey conducted in three regions of the Ural Federal District and narrative interviews prove a weak interest of the new working class youth in politics, their tendency of non-participation in it, and a high level of national patriotic identity.

Construction of identity and the rhetoric of lying in Romanian political discourse

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-44
Author(s):  
Liliana Hoinărescu
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Political Leader ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
Construction Of Identity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Imagination ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

Starting from the pragmatic descriptions of lying and the most influential theories concerning social identity, this paper explores, on the basis of authentic examples, the relationship between identity construction and the rhetoric of lying in Romanian political discourse. We are interested in presenting, on the one hand, the strategies used to denounce a political leader as a liar and to fix this negative image in the collective imagination and, on the other hand, the strategy used by the politician to refute these accusations and rebuild his credibility ethos. Through this analysis, the paper also addresses the questions of the social and moral implications of lying in Romanian public space.

Boys' Thoughts and Talk about Sex in a Working Class Locality of Glasgow

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 703-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Wight
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Heterosexual Sex ◽  
Depth Interviews

This paper analyses data on sexuality from ethnographic research and from group discussions and in-depth interviews with 58 14–16 year old males in two schools. The research was carried out in a working class locality (Brockhill) in Glasgow, Scotland. Fourteen to sixteen year old boys in Brockhill lead homosocial lives and learn about sex and develop their sexual identities almost entirely from males. Heterosexuality is taken-for-granted as the cultural norm. There is considerable ambivalence about heterosexual sex, however, because of the gulf between male and female worlds, the inconsistencies between the dominant norm of teenage male sexuality and the boys' own personal experiences and emotions, and the vulnerability of their sexual identities. Although most boys conform to the convention of talking about sex in a way that objectifies women and focuses on male gratification, this discourse does not always reflect their more private views, particularly amongst those most familiar with girls. Several of these latter respondents expressed frustration with the passive role to which girls usually conform. There is a strong sense of the social construction of sexuality, but resignation to the idea that existing norms are inevitable.

scholarly journals Resistance to violence against women on Spanish walls

2021 ◽  
pp. 147035722094363
Author(s):  
Jonna Tolonen
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Street Art ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Spanish Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Insight Into

Drawing upon visual ethnographic research carried out in two Spanish cities between 2015 and 2018, this visual essay explores the ability of street art to speak about violence against women. Posters, wall writings and stencils represent both visual communication and political expression that can give an insight into this gender-based phenomenon. Street art pieces are linked to broader social contexts. The photographs and discourse analysis of the street art presented in this essay pay attention to the specific contexts of Spanish society and investigate the social spaces in which street art pieces are embedded. The author offers a critical perspective on assumptions regarding the gendered construction of public space and reflections on street-level visual resistance about violence against women in Madrid and Valencia.

scholarly journals Conviviality, disability and design in the city

2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 984-999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Bates
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Material Design ◽  
Inclusive Design ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Encounters ◽  
Urban Square ◽  
The City ◽  
Barrier Free

Weaving together observations and insights from ethnographic research gathered over two years, this article considers how design and everyday life intertwine to create convivial places, but also pauses to take in the moments when tensions rise and conviviality fails. To illustrate, the article takes as an example the redevelopment of a small urban square in London, designed by landscape architects Gustafson Porter and completed in 2011. Gustafson Porter’s practice is deeply informed by inclusive design, and they strive to design barrier-free environments that ‘promote choice, flexibility of use and enable everyone to participate equally’. Taking in both the material design of the square and the social encounters that happen there, the article considers how inclusion and exclusion operate in a public space like General Gordon Square, and reflects on the challenges of making and maintaining conviviality. It suggests that inclusive design might be imagined as a vision of convivial culture in which we live together with difference.

The Peer Group’s Agency in a Brazilian School

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Cinthia Torres Toledo ◽  
Marília Pinto de Carvalho
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
School Engagement ◽  
Peer Groups ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Brazilian Literature ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Educational Trajectories ◽  
Schooling Process ◽  
The City ◽  
Urban State

Black working-class boys are the group with the most significant difficulties in their schooling process. In dialogue with Raewyn Connell, we seek to analyze how the collective conceptions of peer groups have influenced the school engagement of Brazilian boys. We conducted an ethnographic research with students around the age of 14 at an urban state school in the periphery of the city of São Paulo. We analyzed the hierarchization process between two groups of boys, demonstrating the existence of a collective notion of masculinity that works against engagement with the school. Well-known to the Anglophone academic literature, this association is rather uncommon in the Brazilian literature. We have therefore attempted to describe and analyze here the challenges faced by Black working-class Brazilian boys to establish more positive educational trajectories.

“Een stille, ongemanierde volksjongen”. Jos Verdegem (1897-1957), Wies Moens en “Ter Waarheid”

2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-162
Author(s):  
Stefan Van den Bossche
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The Social ◽  
Human Failure

Het menselijke tekort in het algemeen, het rampzalige van de oorlog, de sociale en  culturele aspecten van de Vlaamse beweging, het Vlaams kunstleven aan de IJzer, het activisme, het frontisme: al die geladen thema’s komen rechtstreeks of onrechtstreeks aan bod in de bijdrage van Stefan Van den Bossche over Jos Verdegem (1897-1957). Deze minder bekende Gentse schilder uit het interbellum kwam eerst in nauwe betrekking met de expressionistische dichter en journalist Wies Moens en met andere vooraanstaande Vlaamsgezinde kunstenaars. Verdegems (tijdelijk) verblijf in Parijs en zijn huwelijk met een Française leidde er uiteindelijk toe dat hij vervreemde van het Vlaamsgezinde milieu. Daarenboven droegen zijn hoekige karaktereigenschappen er toe bij dat hij “eerder berucht dan beroemd” werd.________"A quiet, ill-mannered working-class lad". Jos Verdegem (1897-1957), Wies Moens and "Ter Waarheid"This contribution by Stefan Van den Bossche about Jos Verdegem (1897-1957) deals directly or indirectly with a variety of very meaningful topics such as human failure in general, the calamity of war, the social and cultural aspects of the Flemish movement, Flemish art life on the IJzer, activism, and frontism.This lesser-known painter from Ghent from the Interbellum period first came in close contact with the expressionist poet and journalist Wies Moens and with other prominent Flemish nationalist artists. Verdegem's (temporary) stay in Paris and his marriage to a Frenchwoman caused his ultimate estrangement from the Flemish nationalist environment. Moreover, his awkward characteristics contributed to his becoming "infamous rather than famous".

Early Debates

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Llano
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Domestic Space ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Conduct Manuals ◽  
The Public ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
The Social ◽  
Undeserving Poor

This chapter provides an account of how organilleros elicited public anger because their activity did not fit into any of the social aid categories that had been in place since the late eighteenth century. Social aid in Spain relied on a clear-cut distinction between deserving and undeserving poor in order to rationalize the distribution of limited resources and reduce mendicancy on the streets. Organilleros could not, strictly speaking, be considered idle, since they played music, but their activity required no specific skills and was regarded with suspicion as a surrogate form of begging. The in-betweenness of the organillero caused further anger as it challenged attempts to establish a neat distinction between public and private spaces. On one hand, organillo music penetrated the domestic space, which conduct manuals of the nineteenth century configured as female; on the other, it brought women into the public space, which those manuals configured as male.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document