In the wake of George Floyd’s murder during the summer of 2020, protestors painted large ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ murals on streets of the United States, forcing politicians to confront these words tattooing their cities. Each creation and reception of a Black Lives Matter (BLM) mural is entwined within the machinations of city bureaucracies whose foundations are built upon racial capitalism and is enforced by militarized police. To analyse the removal of Black Lives Matter murals is to contextualize them within this history of racialized police violence and erasure, but to do so within an environment of mundane policy-hearings. The removal of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s BLM mural by its city government will be a case study of how bureaucracy can implement ‘race neutral’ policy language that ‘leaves no choice’ but erasure. But while some conservative politicians erased BLM murals to neutralize the radical abolitionist and police reform messages, other politicians similarly embraced the creation of BLM murals as a buffer against, instead of a bridge to, making substantial structural change. Washington, DC’s famous BLM mural will be my exemplar of this type of deceptive radical performative politics. This article explores how protest movements and bureaucracies interact, focusing on how the radical demands of the BLM movement can be subsumed by ‘colour blind’ city responses and/or performative politics while pointing to larger combative histories of how race is policed within the United States.
{"title":"Bureaucratizing Black Lives Matter murals: Racial capitalism, policing and erasure of radical politics","authors":"J. Lennon","doi":"10.1386/jucs_00050_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs_00050_1","url":null,"abstract":"In the wake of George Floyd’s murder during the summer of 2020, protestors painted large ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’ murals on streets of the United States, forcing politicians to confront these words tattooing their cities. Each creation and reception of a Black Lives Matter\u0000 (BLM) mural is entwined within the machinations of city bureaucracies whose foundations are built upon racial capitalism and is enforced by militarized police. To analyse the removal of Black Lives Matter murals is to contextualize them within this history of racialized police violence and\u0000 erasure, but to do so within an environment of mundane policy-hearings. The removal of Tulsa, Oklahoma’s BLM mural by its city government will be a case study of how bureaucracy can implement ‘race neutral’ policy language that ‘leaves no choice’ but erasure.\u0000 But while some conservative politicians erased BLM murals to neutralize the radical abolitionist and police reform messages, other politicians similarly embraced the creation of BLM murals as a buffer against, instead of a bridge to, making substantial structural change. Washington, DC’s\u0000 famous BLM mural will be my exemplar of this type of deceptive radical performative politics. This article explores how protest movements and bureaucracies interact, focusing on how the radical demands of the BLM movement can be subsumed by ‘colour blind’ city responses and/or\u0000 performative politics while pointing to larger combative histories of how race is policed within the United States.","PeriodicalId":36149,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45349404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Naples presents an intriguing case for the study of city and nation in cultural perspective. Historically viewed as a problem city and occupying an ambiguous place in the discursive construction of the nation, it has come to represent Italy in contemporary media and culture. This article reviews the historical construction of Naples in national discourse and interrogates new critical perspectives that re-evaluate the city in the light of postcolonial theory. Identifying the limitations of such theorization with respect to cultural representations of Naples’ relationship with Italy, I draw on theories of cultural accentedness to propose a new approach to Naples, premised upon a reframing of national culture in terms of differently accented practices, discourses and interpretations. The approach is intended as a model for critical interrogation of the relationship between city and nation more broadly.
{"title":"Naples/Italy: An accented approach to city and nation","authors":"R. Glynn","doi":"10.1386/jucs_00043_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs_00043_1","url":null,"abstract":"Naples presents an intriguing case for the study of city and nation in cultural perspective. Historically viewed as a problem city and occupying an ambiguous place in the discursive construction of the nation, it has come to represent Italy in contemporary media and culture. This article\u0000 reviews the historical construction of Naples in national discourse and interrogates new critical perspectives that re-evaluate the city in the light of postcolonial theory. Identifying the limitations of such theorization with respect to cultural representations of Naples’ relationship\u0000 with Italy, I draw on theories of cultural accentedness to propose a new approach to Naples, premised upon a reframing of national culture in terms of differently accented practices, discourses and interpretations. The approach is intended as a model for critical interrogation of the relationship\u0000 between city and nation more broadly.","PeriodicalId":36149,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48895432","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the last three decades, across the world, there have emerged mass movements, uprisings and revolts targeting neo-liberal global capitalism and its radical reorganization of urban hierarchies. As a result, cities have become the central stage for sociopolitical struggles. While the scholarship on new social movements has recognized the aesthetic potential of political organizing since the beginning of the anti-globalization movement in 1999, new approaches are needed to understand the aesthetic dissensus of contemporary activism within the urban space. This article theorizes aesthetics as a potentially radicalizing force in proposing a democratic citizenship in the city. Indebted to the theories of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, James Holston, Mark Purcell and Jacques Rancière, it discusses the new synthesis of political and aesthetic forms, action and experience in urban social movement praxis. Taking Gezi Park resistance in Turkey (2013) as a case study, it seeks to understand the relationship of activist aesthetics to changing practices and conceptions of citizenship.
{"title":"The right to urban public space and aesthetic dissensus for democratic citizenship","authors":"Tijen TUNALI","doi":"10.1386/jucs_00044_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs_00044_1","url":null,"abstract":"In the last three decades, across the world, there have emerged mass movements, uprisings and revolts targeting neo-liberal global capitalism and its radical reorganization of urban hierarchies. As a result, cities have become the central stage for sociopolitical struggles. While the\u0000 scholarship on new social movements has recognized the aesthetic potential of political organizing since the beginning of the anti-globalization movement in 1999, new approaches are needed to understand the aesthetic dissensus of contemporary activism within the urban space. This article theorizes\u0000 aesthetics as a potentially radicalizing force in proposing a democratic citizenship in the city. Indebted to the theories of Henri Lefebvre, David Harvey, James Holston, Mark Purcell and Jacques Rancière, it discusses the new synthesis of political and aesthetic forms, action and experience\u0000 in urban social movement praxis. Taking Gezi Park resistance in Turkey (2013) as a case study, it seeks to understand the relationship of activist aesthetics to changing practices and conceptions of citizenship.","PeriodicalId":36149,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43163596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1990 profoundly changed the role of Berlin. The move of the capital from Bonn to Berlin was to take nearly a decade. In the process, the complex national agenda of reunification was projected onto a city rich in meaningful landmarks and cultural developments. In the 1990s, carefully orchestrated building and marketing strategies focused on urban revival at select locations, including the new government quarter and Potsdamer Platz. Today, however, 1990s Berlin is remembered for the contemporary countercultures that serve to epitomize the city’s creativity over time. This article explores how Berlin developed post-Wall narratives of new beginnings that affirmed a sense of identity well beyond that of the role of national capital.
{"title":"Berlin: Narratives of metropolitan transition and national unity","authors":"Ulrike Zitzlsperger","doi":"10.1386/jucs_00041_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs_00041_1","url":null,"abstract":"The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1990 profoundly changed the role of Berlin. The move of the capital from Bonn to Berlin was to take nearly a decade. In the process, the complex national agenda of reunification was projected onto a city rich in\u0000 meaningful landmarks and cultural developments. In the 1990s, carefully orchestrated building and marketing strategies focused on urban revival at select locations, including the new government quarter and Potsdamer Platz. Today, however, 1990s Berlin is remembered for the contemporary countercultures\u0000 that serve to epitomize the city’s creativity over time. This article explores how Berlin developed post-Wall narratives of new beginnings that affirmed a sense of identity well beyond that of the role of national capital.","PeriodicalId":36149,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43608788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Since the end of the 1970s, Bologna has represented an ‘urban mythscape’ for left-wing subcultural youth in the Italian cultural imaginary. This article examines representations of spaces of encounter and conflict for young people in Bologna in Silvia Ballestra’s La guerra degli Antò (1992) and Enrico Brizzi’s Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo (1994). Set in the 1990s, these novels mark a significant change in Bologna’s urban mythscape, in that they do not refer back to the 1970s like the majority of cultural representations of youth set in Bologna. The protagonists’ desire to ‘leave society’ and withdraw into private spaces reflects an evolution in representations of Italian subcultural youth, which mirrors the emergence of Italian ‘Generation X’ and their experience of social and political commitment.
自20世纪70年代末以来，博洛尼亚一直代表着意大利文化想象中左翼亚文化青年的“城市神话”。本文考察了Silvia Ballestra的《La guerra degli Antå》（1992）和Enrico Brizzi的《Jack Fruscianteèuscito dal gruppo》（1994）中对博洛尼亚年轻人遭遇和冲突空间的描述。这些小说以20世纪90年代为背景，标志着博洛尼亚城市神话的一个重大变化，因为它们不像大多数以博洛尼亚为背景的青年文化代表那样指向20世纪70年代。主人公渴望“离开社会”，进入私人空间，这反映了意大利亚文化青年形象的演变，反映了意大利“X世代”的出现及其社会和政治承诺的经历。
{"title":"Leaving the group: Bologna as an urban mythscape for 1990s Italian youth","authors":"Cecilia Brioni","doi":"10.1386/jucs_00042_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs_00042_1","url":null,"abstract":"Since the end of the 1970s, Bologna has represented an ‘urban mythscape’ for left-wing subcultural youth in the Italian cultural imaginary. This article examines representations of spaces of encounter and conflict for young people in Bologna in Silvia Ballestra’s La\u0000 guerra degli Antò (1992) and Enrico Brizzi’s Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo (1994). Set in the 1990s, these novels mark a significant change in Bologna’s urban mythscape, in that they do not refer back to the 1970s like the majority of cultural representations\u0000 of youth set in Bologna. The protagonists’ desire to ‘leave society’ and withdraw into private spaces reflects an evolution in representations of Italian subcultural youth, which mirrors the emergence of Italian ‘Generation X’ and their experience of social and\u0000 political commitment.","PeriodicalId":36149,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Cultural Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42269591","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The cultural production These Rooms challenged traditional nationalistic commemorations of war and rebellion during the ‘Decade of the Centenaries’. Created by the Dublin-based ANU Productions and CoisCéim Dance Theatre, and funded by the Irish and UK governments, this series of theatre/dance performances, installations and public outreach projects in unconventional urban venues ran from 2016 to 2019 in Dublin, London and Liverpool, cities with mixed British and Irish populations. Fragmentary, embodied stories about the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin communicated the perspectives of working-class Irish civilian women and confused young British soldiers through intimate domestic encounters that productively disrupted heroic narratives. Audiences were instead invited to create temporary communities of encounter and ‘unlearn’ dominant concepts supporting colonial, imperial and national spaces‐times. As a critical agonistic artistic intervention, These Rooms offered more inclusive ‘potential histories’ and forms of belonging across political, social and temporal borders during the geopolitically uncertain times associated with Brexit.
{"title":"Troubling national commemoration in Dublin, London and Liverpool: ANU Production and CoisCéim Dance Theatre’s These Rooms","authors":"Karen E. Till","doi":"10.1386/jucs_00045_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs_00045_1","url":null,"abstract":"The cultural production These Rooms challenged traditional nationalistic commemorations of war and rebellion during the ‘Decade of the Centenaries’. Created by the Dublin-based ANU Productions and CoisCéim Dance Theatre, and funded by the Irish and UK governments,\u0000 this series of theatre/dance performances, installations and public outreach projects in unconventional urban venues ran from 2016 to 2019 in Dublin, London and Liverpool, cities with mixed British and Irish populations. Fragmentary, embodied stories about the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin\u0000 communicated the perspectives of working-class Irish civilian women and confused young British soldiers through intimate domestic encounters that productively disrupted heroic narratives. Audiences were instead invited to create temporary communities of encounter and ‘unlearn’\u0000 dominant concepts supporting colonial, imperial and national spaces‐times. As a critical agonistic artistic intervention, These Rooms offered more inclusive ‘potential histories’ and forms of belonging across political, social and temporal borders during the geopolitically\u0000 uncertain times associated with Brexit.","PeriodicalId":36149,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48966821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This Special Issue explores how cultural production and practice understand and articulate the changing relationship between city and nation, in the light of globalization and the increasing freedom of cities to build, brand and promote themselves independent of the nation state. The Introduction maps the scholarship pertaining to cultural engagements with city and nation, highlighting their separation into two distinct spheres. It reviews the existing scholarship on city‐nation relations in the field of urban studies (where discussion has centred on the emergence of ‘world cities’ and their implications for nation states) and in urban history. It locates in Vivian Bickford-Smith’s work on cities and nationalism in South Africa a rich source of inspiration for the volume’s complementary study of the role played by cultural production and practice in articulating, shaping and negotiating understandings of city and nation in contemporary Europe. It closes with an overview of the contributing articles.
{"title":"City and nation in cultural perspective: Introduction","authors":"R. Glynn","doi":"10.1386/jucs_00039_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs_00039_2","url":null,"abstract":"This Special Issue explores how cultural production and practice understand and articulate the changing relationship between city and nation, in the light of globalization and the increasing freedom of cities to build, brand and promote themselves independent of the nation state. The\u0000 Introduction maps the scholarship pertaining to cultural engagements with city and nation, highlighting their separation into two distinct spheres. It reviews the existing scholarship on city‐nation relations in the field of urban studies (where discussion has centred on the emergence\u0000 of ‘world cities’ and their implications for nation states) and in urban history. It locates in Vivian Bickford-Smith’s work on cities and nationalism in South Africa a rich source of inspiration for the volume’s complementary study of the role played by cultural production\u0000 and practice in articulating, shaping and negotiating understandings of city and nation in contemporary Europe. It closes with an overview of the contributing articles.","PeriodicalId":36149,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47982005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Post-war France was reshaped by a sustained period of spatial planning and modernization. This was particularly so during the presidency of Charles de Gaulle (1958‐69), as the country positioned itself as a modern European nation after decolonization. In its approach and execution, French spatial planning represented the sort of imperious state intervention critiqued by radical spatial theorists such as Henri Lefebvre. Yet it remained the case that the planners articulated a rich vision of France’s future, filled with space and light. Not only that, but they had the means to bring their vision into being. During the mid-1960s, the building of New Towns became central to their thinking. This article revisits spatial planning as a realm of the imagination and considers how the nation’s future was portrayed in textual and visual forms. It explores how the translation of dreams into built realities became a source of political tension, and how those tensions found public expression in the visual media.
战后的法国被持续的空间规划和现代化时期所重塑。在戴高乐（Charles de Gaulle，1958-69）担任总统期间尤其如此，因为该国在非殖民化后将自己定位为现代欧洲国家。法国的空间规划在方法和执行上代表了亨利·列斐伏尔等激进空间理论家所批评的那种专横的国家干预。然而，规划者们仍然对法国的未来提出了丰富的愿景，充满了空间和光线。不仅如此，他们还有办法实现自己的愿景。在20世纪60年代中期，新城的建设成为他们思想的核心。这篇文章重新审视了作为想象领域的空间规划，并思考了国家的未来是如何以文本和视觉形式描绘的。它探讨了将梦想转化为既定现实是如何成为政治紧张局势的根源的，以及这些紧张局势是如何在视觉媒体中得到公开表达的。
{"title":"Build the imaginary: Urban futures and New Towns in post-war French spatial planning","authors":"E. Welch","doi":"10.1386/jucs_00040_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs_00040_1","url":null,"abstract":"Post-war France was reshaped by a sustained period of spatial planning and modernization. This was particularly so during the presidency of Charles de Gaulle (1958‐69), as the country positioned itself as a modern European nation after decolonization. In its approach and execution,\u0000 French spatial planning represented the sort of imperious state intervention critiqued by radical spatial theorists such as Henri Lefebvre. Yet it remained the case that the planners articulated a rich vision of France’s future, filled with space and light. Not only that, but they had\u0000 the means to bring their vision into being. During the mid-1960s, the building of New Towns became central to their thinking. This article revisits spatial planning as a realm of the imagination and considers how the nation’s future was portrayed in textual and visual forms. It explores\u0000 how the translation of dreams into built realities became a source of political tension, and how those tensions found public expression in the visual media.","PeriodicalId":36149,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-04-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43121225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article, originally delivered at the 16th international conference of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (University of Dundee, November 2019), seeks to engage with the ‘emotive’, ‘sensorial’ and ‘affective turn’, as defined by authors in the humanities, social and cultural studies in order to consider the emotional responses to the mediated experiences of place and to inquire into how individuals and collectives react to a changing sensory environment. It adopts a multi-disciplinary approach that blends historical, cultural and mediated dimensions of urban spaces and places while maintaining a focus on the kind of locative/interactive art which is less concerned with representation and more with radical construction, social engagement and communication. The purpose is to try and provide an answer to the question: what does ‘sensing the city’ exactly entail when the city’s form, as Baudelaire memorably put it, ‘changes faster than the human heart?’
{"title":"Sensing the (media) city","authors":"Anna Notaro","doi":"10.1386/JUCS_00038_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/JUCS_00038_1","url":null,"abstract":"This article, originally delivered at the 16th international conference of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (University of Dundee, November 2019), seeks to engage with the ‘emotive’, ‘sensorial’ and ‘affective turn’, as defined by authors in the humanities, social and cultural studies in order to consider the emotional responses to the mediated experiences of place and to inquire into how individuals and collectives react to a changing sensory environment. It adopts a multi-disciplinary approach that blends historical, cultural and mediated dimensions of urban spaces and places while maintaining a focus on the kind of locative/interactive art which is less concerned with representation and more with radical construction, social engagement and communication. The purpose is to try and provide an answer to the question: what does ‘sensing the city’ exactly entail when the city’s form, as Baudelaire memorably put it, ‘changes faster than the human heart?’","PeriodicalId":36149,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Cultural Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47837310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the last decade, the city of Delhi has witnessed a surge in urban artistic practice – particularly street art – that draws its conceptual and art-historical ‘virtue’ from being in the public sphere. The changing socio-economic, infrastructural and aesthetic set-up of the city bears many similarities to what has been called the cultural regeneration of cities across the globe. Interpreting it as symptomatic of the neo-liberalization of the Indian city, this article examines the spatial implications of the burgeoning contemporary street art movement in Delhi. It contextualizes the art movement within place-making initiatives in Indian cities that have been attempting to attract the middle-class to city spaces to cater to their consumption patterns. The article suggests that there are two ways in which commissioned street art in neoliberal Delhi closely ties up with the neoliberal agenda of uneven redevelopment and regeneration in the city: (a) by instrumentalizing its form to revitalize decrepit areas that need capital investment in order to garner cultural tourism and trigger capital investment; and (b) by invoking a narrative of beautification and cleanliness that has been seen to emerge from a dominantly middle-class perspective in Indian cities. Looking at the unique ways in which urban space in Delhi interacts with local-political situations and responds to such place-making initiatives, the article attempts to interrogate what art-led gentrification implies in the economic and sociopolitical context of cities of the global South.
{"title":"The utility of beauty: The antinomies of street art in Delhi","authors":"Sanchit Khurana","doi":"10.1386/jucs_00027_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/jucs_00027_1","url":null,"abstract":"In the last decade, the city of Delhi has witnessed a surge in urban artistic practice – particularly street art – that draws its conceptual and art-historical ‘virtue’ from being in the public sphere. The changing socio-economic, infrastructural and aesthetic set-up of the city bears many similarities to what has been called the cultural regeneration of cities across the globe. Interpreting it as symptomatic of the neo-liberalization of the Indian city, this article examines the spatial implications of the burgeoning contemporary street art movement in Delhi. It contextualizes the art movement within place-making initiatives in Indian cities that have been attempting to attract the middle-class to city spaces to cater to their consumption patterns. The article suggests that there are two ways in which commissioned street art in neoliberal Delhi closely ties up with the neoliberal agenda of uneven redevelopment and regeneration in the city: (a) by instrumentalizing its form to revitalize decrepit areas that need capital investment in order to garner cultural tourism and trigger capital investment; and (b) by invoking a narrative of beautification and cleanliness that has been seen to emerge from a dominantly middle-class perspective in Indian cities. Looking at the unique ways in which urban space in Delhi interacts with local-political situations and responds to such place-making initiatives, the article attempts to interrogate what art-led gentrification implies in the economic and sociopolitical context of cities of the global South.","PeriodicalId":36149,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Urban Cultural Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41824673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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