B.A., M.A. (Guelph), Ph.D. (Trent)
Thesis: Finding Space, Making Place: Understanding the Importance of Social Space to Local Punk Communities
Examining Committee:
Alan O'Connor (Supervisor), Hugh Hodges, and Micheal Epp
External Examiner: Jeffrey Debies-Carl, University of Newhaven
Internal Examiner: Andrew Loeb
Chair: Liam Mitchell
Abstract
This dissertation underscores the importance of place to understanding the actions, behaviours and organization of local punk scenes. Independent music venues are important hubs of social activity around which punk scenes are organized. Through continued interaction with participants, these spaces become imbued with the energy, history and memories of a local music scene. As such, this analysis makes a claim in support of independent music venues as sites of cultural and historical significance that are worthy of academic research and inquiry. Through the use of ethnographic research methods such as participant observation, photographic documentation, interviews and surveys, the lived experiences of contemporary punk scene participants are recorded, giving voice to those who are often ignored in larger grand narratives of punk history. As a result of this analysis, traditional concepts of punk as a utopic or homogenous countercultural space are challenged to reveal the multitude of differences within local scenes, which are actually comprised of a complex and diverse group of individuals who regularly experience the real effects of competition, cooperation, tension and struggle while attempting to build and maintain their scene. Moving from the local, to the national, to the international, this research demonstrates the on-going practices of scene participants across Canada and beyond by addressing the larger issue of the loss of music venues that is occurring on a global scale and its ultimate affects on scene participants. First, a two-tired analysis of The Spill Coffee Bar in Peterborough, Ontario, is conducted in order to understand the reciprocal relationship between a venue and its patrons on both a physical and social level, as well as its role within the larger outside community surrounding it. Second, the loss of space is explored through a look at illegal and legal
strategies of building punk spaces in Vancouver, British Columbia, a city whose relationship with its alternative music scenes is a contested site of debate. Finally, the third chapter looks at the historical relationship between punks and technology in order to remove the aura surrounding the use of the Internet and understand contemporary scenes as occupying both virtual and physical spaces.
Katie Green is a recent graduate of Trent's Cultural Studies Doctoral program. She holds a B.A. in Art History and an M.A. in Art and Visual Culture, both from the University of Guelph. Her work examines the role and importance of social space for local Canadian punk scenes. In particular, she examines how independent music venues assist in the construction and organization of local punk scenes in order to understand what happens to punk participants when venues are shut down. Her research interests include punk culture, independent and DIY music scenes, social space and memory, visual culture, fashion theory and material culture, identity construction (i.e. group, individual, local, national, etc.), art history (specifically impressionism, post-impressionism, modernism, post-modernism).