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Northumbria Research Link Citation: Griffin, Naomi (2015) Understanding DIY punk as activism: realising DIY ethics through cultural production, community and everyday negotiations. Doctoral thesis, Northumbria University. This version was downloaded from Northumbria Research Link: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/30251/ Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University’s research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html Understanding DIY punk as activism: realising DIY ethics through cultural production, community and everyday negotiations N. C. Griffin PhD 2015 1 Understanding DIY punk as activism: realising DIY ethics through cultural production, community and everyday negotiations Naomi Christina Griffin A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Research undertaken in the Faculty of Arts, Design & Social Sciences March 2015 2 Abstract This thesis explores the production of DIY punk alternative cultures, communities and identities as activism. Based on an ethnographic study of DIY punk in North East England, it combines and integrates the disciplinary approaches of sociology, cultural studies and geography. Using an interpretivist epistemology, the research focuses on DIY punk participants’ subjective realities and experiences, through participant observation, of punk events and shows, and interviews. Carried out by a researcher who was both embedded in the scene, as a punk participant, and outside it, as an academic- PhD student, it enhances methodological and epistemological debates about the ‘insider/outsider’ research stance and subjectivities. This thesis promotes DIY punk as a relevant and rich area for scholarship. It theorises DIY punk participation as cultural production (Moore, 2007), existing within a framework of activism, as participants attempt to bring into being ‘hoped-for futures’ (Chatterton & Pickerill, 2010) using a multitude of tactics. Identifying multi-layered and multi-scalar acts of resistance, the narrowness of the concept of activism in the literature is critiqued. A more inclusive conceptualisation of activism, as more than oppositional, is proposed. A DIY ethic is theorised as anti-capitalist and interconnected with other complexly interwoven ideologies and politics. The everyday challenges that participants face, in negotiating a DIY punk ethic, and the interface between DIY punk culture and ‘mainstream’ society, are examined. Participants narratively construct DIY punk through ongoing negotiations, which affect how participants produce and interact with and in DIY punk spaces. The research contributes to scholarship on punk and community by arguing that DIY punk cultural production is strengthened by notions of community. It has wider relevance by exploring the meaning of community in a unique cultural context. It offers a definition of community that recognises DIY punk 3 communities as imagined (Anderson, 1991) but sensitive to the significance of place. Keywords: DIY, Punk, Cultural Production, Place, Activism, Resistance, Community, Insider Research 4 Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................... 3 Contents ............................................................................................................. 5 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................. 8 Declaration ........................................................................................................ 10 1.0 Thesis Introduction ...................................................................................... 11 1.1 Personal Interest ..................................................................................... 13 1.2 Wider context .......................................................................................... 14 1.3 Thesis Structure ...................................................................................... 17 2.0 Literature Review ........................................................................................ 22 2.1 Theorising ‘Do It Yourself’ Activisms ....................................................... 24 2.1.1 Borrowing from Foucault’s toolbox: power and resistance, scale and place ......................................................................................................... 27 2.1.2 Critiquing 'big A' Activism and the importance of everyday action in DIY ethics and practice ............................................................................. 32 2.2 The DIY ethic and punk: history and ideology ......................................... 41 2.2.1 DIY Punk ethics in Practice ............................................................. 45 2.2.2 The complexities of punk ideology in practice ................................. 51 2.3 Subculture, scene, social movement, or all of the above? ...................... 58 2.3.1 Developments in subcultural studies ............................................... 58 2.3.2 DIY Punk as imagined communities ................................................ 64 2.4 Literature review conclusions and research themes ............................... 70 3.0 Methodology ............................................................................................... 73 3.1 Epistemology and research paradigm .................................................... 74 3.2 Research Procedures, A multi-method approach ................................... 77 3.2.1 The use of (auto)ethnography ......................................................... 78 3.2.2 Observations ................................................................................... 80 3.2.3 Interviews ........................................................................................ 82 3.2.4 Access and Sampling: who, where and when?................................ 83 3.3 Methodological considerations ................................................................ 86 3.3.1 Why (auto)ethnography? Combining ‘insider’, ethnographic, reflexive and iterative research techniques ............................................................. 86 5 3.3.2 Reflexivity as a methodological tool ................................................ 88 3.3.3 Positionality: insider/outsider/academic/activist/punk? .................... 90 3.3.4 Ethical Considerations ................................................................... 101 3.3.4 Data Analysis ................................................................................. 106 3.4 Conclusions .......................................................................................... 108 4.0 ‘Doing it Ourselves’: A DIY Ethic and Praxis ............................................. 110 4.1 Vignette 1: Punk Praxis and the DIY punk show ................................... 111 4.2 Do what yourself? ................................................................................. 120 4.3 A DIY ethic ............................................................................................ 123 4.3.1 DIY and anti-capitalist ethics ......................................................... 123 4.3.2 DIY politics as interconnected ....................................................... 127 4.3.3 ‘Do it yourself 'cause no one else will’: dissatisfaction, autonomy and creativity ................................................................................................. 136 4.4 DIY punk cultural production as activism .............................................. 144 4.5 Conclusions .......................................................................................... 146 5.0 The role of community and belonging in DIY punk activisms .................... 148 5.1 Vignette 2: ‘All we got is each other’ ..................................................... 149 5.2 Understanding community in a DIY punk context ................................. 151 5.2.1 DIY punk community as imagined ................................................. 152 5.2.2 DIY punk community and place ..................................................... 155 5.2.3 DIY punk community as multi-layered and multi-scalar ................. 159 5.3 The role of friendship, relationships and a sense of belonging ............. 165 5.4 So, what should I call you? Constructing and claiming collective identity ........................................................................................................ 171 5.5 Conclusions .......................................................................................... 178 6.0 Negotiating everyday problematics in DIY punk cultural production ......... 180 6.1 Vignette 3: the complexities of ‘calling out’ ‘non-punk’