“You're Only Ever A Block From The ‘Hood”

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 152-170
Author(s):  
Alex Blue V
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Automobile Plant ◽  
Original Intent ◽  
Spatial Reorientation ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Forms Of Violence ◽  
The City

This article explores the use of sound, lyrics, and performance as tools for spatial reorientation and reimagining, identity formation and affirmation, and counternarrative or counterarchive in a rapidly gentrifying contemporary Detroit, Michigan. Two discrete, yet discursively linked case studies are presented—performances by the same artist in two different spaces—that exhibit various modes of “flipping,” slang that can refer to multiple transformative practices in contemporary Detroit. These practices include the use of overdetermined spaces, or spaces that have been declared abandoned or vacant, for something other than their original intent—i.e. using a decommissioned automobile plant as a music video set; sampling, which can be understood as using sonic components from previously recorded songs in the creation of new hip-hop beats; buying homes in a state of disrepair, fixing and reselling them at large profits; and inverting meaning itself, via slang or coded language. Additionally Black techniques of sounding and performance are illuminated, with a focus on echo as a mode of co-creation. These various practices are all responses to the growing wave of gentrification that gains momentum in the city daily. The analysis draws primarily from ethnographic research conducted from 2016 to 2018, culling data from participant observation, recorded interviews, informal conversations, field notes, lyrical and video analysis, and the analysis of mediated accounts, both print and online. As the analysis shows, the strategies utilized by artists in Detroit ensure that no matter how much the spaces in Detroit continue to change, and no matter how much an attempt is made to provide racially curated space through various forms of violence, you’re only ever a block from the ‘hood.

Architectures of Fear and Spaces of Hope in Banaras

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 34-53
Author(s):  
Bikramaditya K. Choudhary ◽  
Brahma Prakash
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Nationalist Movement ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Incumbent Party ◽  
19Th And 20Th Century ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The City

Identity of Banaras was once again back in the limelight with the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) Prime Ministerial candidate Mr. Narendra Modi choosing to represent the city. Known also as Kashi and Varanasi, Banaras indeed played a strategic role in representing the politics the incumbent party believed in. With the overwhelming majority to Modi, the city of Banaras is further idealized as an archetypal city of the Brahminical Hinduism with the spectacular images of temples and ghats that remain teeming with Pandas and devotees. This particular Hindu identity of the city has been constructed through the selective images over time from the colonial period onwards in the 19th century. Identity formation, whether of a community or a city, social or symbolic is spatially situated process and spatial centrality is important in understanding the identity of a city in general and Banaras in particular. We in this paper argue that how in case of Banaras some spaces were mobilized and centralized to create this hindutva identity. In this representational mobilization of identity, the city of Banaras represents a spectacular space removed from its own spatiality. Proclaimed space of Banaras seems not to be a product of social practices rather it is symbolic spaces generated through the trajectories of ideologies of certain groups. This process of formation of identity is not a radical departure, rather it as a culmination of re-emerging Hindu nationalist movement during 19th and 20th century. In this paper, we bring forth the celebration of Ravidas Jyanti as the performance of possibilities and we try to identity the spaces of hope amidst the overarching outcry. Thinking through the categories of space and performance and their interpolations in Banaras, this article attempts to reconfigure the identity of this city beyond the Hindu right-wing rhetoric and pretension.

A minor theory of direct action politics and performance in New Orleans’ economic justice movement

2021 ◽  
pp. 026377582110626
Author(s):  
Caroline Keegan
Keyword(s):  
New Orleans ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Economic Justice ◽  
Immigration Reform ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Performance ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Dominant Narratives ◽  
The City

In this paper, I develop a minor theory that blurs boundaries between prefigurative direct action and symbolic performance to reconsider strategies for resistance and world-building. Drawing on participant observation and interviews of economic justice organizers and activists in New Orleans in 2015, I examine two events through this minor theory: an immigration reform protest and a collaboratively written skit about income inequality. By emphasizing the performance of protest and the potential for protest through performance, I consider how these events empowered activists to make claims on spaces of the city, develop long-term embodied solidarities, disrupt dominant narratives, and en act more just alternatives. These events took place against the backdrop of intensifying racial and economic inequalities in post-Katrina New Orleans, following a long history of both repression and resistance in the city. Through performance-based direct actions, New Orleans’s economic justice movement moves beyond a reactive politics rooted in outrage and anguish toward a direct action politics constructive of a more just world.

Hygienic assessment of learning environment conditions (by the example of higher educational institutions of the city of Ufa)

2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-411
Author(s):  
Elena Ju. Gorbatkova
Keyword(s):  
Ionizing Radiation ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Higher Educational Institutions ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Republic Of Bashkortostan ◽  
Average Relative Humidity ◽  
Higher Educational ◽  
The Republic ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The City

Introduction. The important factors affecting health and performance of young people are the conditions of education, in particular, a comfortable microclimate in the classrooms of higher educational institutions. Materials and methods. In view of the urgency of this problem, an analysis was made of the microclimate parameters of educational organizations of different profiles (Ufa city, the Republic of Bashkortostan). 294 classrooms were studied in 22 buildings of 4 leading universities in Ufa. A total of 3,822 measurements were taken to determine the parameters of the microclimate. The analysis of ionizing radiation in the aerial environment of classrooms. There was performed determination of radon and its affiliated products content. In order to assess the conditions and lifestyle of students of 4 higher educational institutions of the city of Ufa, we conducted an anonymous survey of 1,820 students of I and IV years of education. Results. The average temperature in the classrooms of all universities studied was 23.9±0.09 C. The average relative humidity in all classrooms was 34.2 ± 0.42%. Analysis of ionizing radiation (radon and its daughter products decay) in the aerial environment of the classrooms and sports halls located in the basement determined that the average annual equivalent equilibrium volumetric activity of the radon daughter products (EROA ± Δ222Rn) ranged from 28 ± 14 to 69 ± 34.5 meter, which meets the requirements established by SanPiN. Conclusion. The hygienic assessment of the microclimate parameters of educational institutions of various profile revealed a number of deviations from the regulated norms. The results indicate the need to control the parameters of the microclimate, both from the administration of universities, and from the professors. According to the results of the study, recommendations were prepared for the management of higher educational institutions in Ufa.

Pengembangan Keswadayaan Kelompok PEW sebagai Strategi Pemberdayaan Ekonomi Berbasis Kewilayahan di Kota Yogyakarta

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 160
Author(s):  
Yuli Kurniyati ◽  
Bening Hadilinatih
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Monitoring And Evaluation ◽  
Develop Model ◽  
Economic Empowerment ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
Stakeholder Model ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
The City ◽  
Group Self

<p>Areas Based Economic Empowerment Program (Program Ekonomi Berbasis Kewilayahan/PEW) is a program designed to focus on the learning process and empowercommunities through local economic institutions to shore up the economy of thecommunity itself. This study aims to: 1). Knowing the PEW Group self-reliance inorganizing services to members in order to regionally based economic empowerment.2). Identifying the factors management, member participation and partnership thathinder or support the PEW Group self-reliance and self-reliance opportunities for effortsto develop a support group for regionally based economic empowerment, 3). Formula tepolicy recommendations for the city authorities to develop and implement a model ofselfreliance development PEW group as a regionally based economic empowerment strategy in the city of Yogyakarta. This research is qualitative research, the research took place in the townYogyakarta. The collecting data techniques used were: study documentation, participant, observation, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussion (FGD). In the first studywere: 1). Evaluating Performance PEW Group 2). Identify factors inhibiting andsupporting self-sufficiency Group 3). Self-Supporting analyze PEW Group 4). Early formulation compile policy recommendations group. The research development model of self-reliance. Year II study is 1). Self-Supporting Group to develop a model based onthe results of Phase I study 2). Validation conduct joint FGD Stakeholder Model through3). Develop Model Self-Supporting Implementation Handbook. Results showed that the level of self-reliance menilitian PEW group is still low. This isreflected in the level of independence that is still low, both in terms of independence inthe administration, self-reliance and independence in the management of the assets. PEW group of selfsufficiency level is still low, due to several factors, namely: (1) Capacity Board PEW Group is still low (2) The lack of participation of members of the Group, and (3) lack of stakeholder support. Another factor that still require serious treatment that can increase self-reliance PEW Group is a factor Assistance Group Implementation and Monitoring and Evaluation during implementation is still lacking.</p>

TOURISM MOBILITY AT THE SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES RIO 2016

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Cabral ◽  
Carolin Lusby ◽  
Ricardo Uvinha
Keyword(s):  
Olympic Games ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Bus Rapid Transit ◽  
Rapid Transit ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Tourist Attractions ◽  
Official Sources ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

Sports Tourism as a segment is growing exponentially in Brazil. The sports mega-events that occurred in the period from 2007 to 2016 helped strengthen this sector significantly. This article examined tourism mobility during the Summer Olympic Games Rio 2016, hosted by the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This study expands the understanding of the relationship between tourism and city infrastructure, therefore being relevant to academics, professionals of the area and to the whole society due to its multidisciplinary field. The existence of a relationship between means of transportation and the Olympic regions as well as tourist attractions for a possible legacy was observed. Data were collected from official sources, field research and through participant-observation and semi structured interviews. Data were coded and analyzed. The results indicate that the city was overall successful in its execution of sufficient mobility. New means of transportation were added and others updated. BRT's (Bus Rapid Transit) were the main use of mass transport to Olympic sites. However, a lack of public transport access was observed for the touristic sites.

scholarly journals Urban Living Labs, Circular Economy and Nature-Based Solutions: Ideation and Testing of a New Soil in the City of Turin Using a Multi-stakeholder Perspective

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grazia Sveva Ascione ◽  
Federico Cuomo ◽  
Nicole Mariotti ◽  
Laura Corazza
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Stakeholder Management ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Green Roofs ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Urban Living ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Living Labs ◽  
Multi Stakeholder ◽  
The City

AbstractIn the attempt to foster circular economy (CE), cities are increasingly adopting urban living labs (ULLs) as sites of co-production aimed at testing alternative solutions based on the reuse of products, reduction of consumption and recycling of materials. Taking this perspective, our study adopts an exploratory research design to discover the pragmatic implications emerging from a case study. The City of Turin joined proGIreg, a European project that entails the regeneration of former industrial districts by means of nature-based solutions (NBS). Ranging from aquaponics to green roofs, seven NBS have been experimented in Turin, which rely on the use of natural systems to tackle social, economic and environmental challenges efficiently and sustainably. Among them, the most promising is related to the production and test of the ‘new soil’, a blend obtained by mixing earth materials coming from construction sites with compost, zeolites and mycorrhizae. The case herein presented is interesting to analyse for the multi-stakeholder management setting used, where public institutions, private companies, research institutions, citizens and associations collaborated in the co-creation and testing phase of the NBS. Consequently, the data collected through participant observation and direct interviews allow researchers to describe multi-stakeholders’ dynamics and how they work. Thus, this paper narrates a micro-contextual experience while providing a critique. Results include an analysis of the unique combination of different stakeholders, which strongly impacted on the management and the effectiveness of the entire project. By consequence, the paper offers both theoretical contributions to the relational branch of stakeholder theory and practical evidence in demonstrating the importance of the relational branch of the theory over a more traditional transactional view.

Bill Dixon's Voice (Letter)

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 204-231
Author(s):  
ERIC PORTER
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Music ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Improvised Music ◽  
Wage Employment ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Critical Intervention ◽  
The City ◽  
The Voice

AbstractIn November 1966 composer and improviser Bill Dixon recorded a seventeen-minute-long “voice letter” to jazz writer Frank Kofsky. This letter may be analyzed as a critical intervention by Dixon, an attempt to change the context of interpretation around improvised music. But the voice letter may also be heard and analyzed as a kind of performance. As Dixon speaks, one can hear the rumbling and roar of the city as well as the staccato sounds of car and truck horns unfolding in dynamic counterpoint to his words. In this essay, I put the voice letter into dialogue with Dixon's personal history, his writings and interview statements, and some of his contemporaneous musical and multi-generic projects, especially his collaboration with dancer and choreographer Judith Dunn. I show how the letter maps Dixon's and Dunn's positions within a geography of intellectual circles, experimental artistic communities, and low-wage employment networks. By extension, I examine how the voice letter, as critical intervention and performance, points us to a nuanced understanding of black experimental music of the 1960s as a socially inflected, self-conscious and, ultimately, serious engagement with various modes of artistic production and thought, carried out under conditions of both precarity and inspiration.

Tusslers, Beatdowns, and Brothers: A Sociohistorical Overview of Video Game Arcades and theStreet FighterCommunity

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 742-762
Author(s):  
Michael Ryan Skolnik ◽  
Steven Conway
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Historical Movement

Alongside their material dimensions, video game arcades were simultaneously metaphysical spaces where participants negotiated social and cultural convention, thus contributing to identity formation and performance within game culture. While physical arcade spaces have receded in number, the metaphysical elements of the arcades persist. We examine the historical conditions around the establishment of so-called arcade culture, taking into account the history of public entertainment spaces, such as pool halls, coin-operated entertainment technologies, video games, and the demographic and economic conditions during the arcade’s peak popularity, which are historically connected to the advent of bachelor subculture. Drawing on these complementary histories, we examine the social and historical movement of arcades and arcade culture, focusing upon the Street Fighter series and the fighting game community (FGC). Through this case study, we argue that moral panics concerning arcades, processes of cultural norm selection, technological shifts, and the demographic peculiarities of arcade culture all contributed to its current decline and discuss how they affect the contemporary FGC.

The Fiery Pacific: Volcanic Eruptions and Settler-State Theatricality in Oceania, 1780–1900

2014 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-392
Author(s):  
Diana Looser
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Performance Studies ◽  
Art History ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
The Body ◽  
Red Color ◽  
Form Part ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Grand Opera ◽  
The City

In the closing scene of René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt's melodramaLa Tête de mort; ou, Les Ruines de Pompeïa(1827), audiences at Paris's Théâtre de la Gaîté were presented with the spectacular cataclysm of an erupting Mount Vesuvius that invaded the city and engulfed the hapless characters in its fiery embrace. “The theatre,” Pixérécourt writes, “is completely inundated by this sea of bitumen and lava. A shower of blazing and transparent stones and red ash falls on all sides…. The red color with which everything is struck, the terrible noise of the volcano, the screaming, the agitation and despair of the characters … all combine to form this terrible convulsion of nature, a horrible picture, and altogether worthy of being compared to Hell.” A few years later, in 1830, Daniel Auber's grand operaLa Muette de Portici(1828), which yoked a seventeenth-century eruption of Vesuvius with a popular revolt against Spanish rule in Naples, opened at the Théâtre de Monnaie in Brussels. The Belgian spectators, inspired by the opera's revolutionary sentiments, poured out into the streets and seized their country's independence from the Dutch. These two famous examples, which form part of a long genealogy of representing volcanic eruptions through various artistic means, highlight not only the compelling, immersive spectacle of nature in extremis but also the ability of stage scenery to intervene materially in the narrative action and assimilate affective and political meanings. As these two examples also indicate, however, the body of scholarship in literary studies, art history, and theatre and performance studies that attends to the mechanical strategies and symbolic purchase of volcanic representations has tended to focus mainly on Europe; more research remains to be undertaken into how volcanic spectacles have engaged with non-European topographies and sociopolitical dynamics and how this wider view might illuminate our understanding of theatre's social roles.

Family Participation in Challenger Baseball: Critical Theory Perspectives

1999 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 372-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lupe Castañ ◽  
Claudine Sherrill
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Physical Disabilities ◽  
Head Coach ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Field Notes

The purpose was to analyze the social construction of Challenger baseball opportunities in a selected community. Participants were 10 boys and 6 girls with mental and/or physical disabilities (ages 7 to 16 years, M = 11.31), their families, and the head coach. Data were collected through interviews in the homes with all family members, participant observation at practices and games, and field notes. The research design was qualitative, and critical theory guided interpretation. Analytical induction revealed five outcomes that were particularly meaningful as families and coach socially constructed Challenger baseball: (a) fun and enjoyment, (b) positive affect related to equal opportunity and feelings of “normalcy,” (c) social networking/emotional support for families, (d) baseball knowledge and skills, and (e) social interactions with peers.

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