Ritual and Conflict in the Urban Art Democracy
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2013 Imagining the City: Ritual and Conflict in the Urban Art Democracy Carolyn Chernoff University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Sociology Commons Recommended Citation Chernoff, Carolyn, "Imagining the City: Ritual and Conflict in the Urban Art Democracy" (2013). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 744. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/744 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/744 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Imagining the City: Ritual and Conflict in the Urban Art Democracy Abstract Imagining the City: Ritual and Conflict in the Urban Art Democracy Carolyn Chernoff Stanton E.F. Wortham Charles L. Bosk Recent scholarship and public policy ask arts to drive economic growth for urban revitalization; this perspective takes positive social interaction as a given within the larger project of arts-based urban economic development. However, the social life of community arts organizations provide another lens to explore the role of art and arts organizations within the contemporary city. Within the fractured context of American cities (racial and ideological segregation), community arts provide a testing ground for social interaction across demographic difference: a place where "culture builds community" (Stern & Siefert, 2002), albeit not unproblematically. This dissertation explores democratic practices around diversity within majority-white urban community arts organizations devoted to progressive social change. Based on fieldwork, interviews, and archival research conducted at three Philadelphia nonprofit organizations over the course of eight years, I ask how progressive community arts organizations function as learning spaces, mediate and reproduce social difference, and enable new relationships with the city. Community arts play a unique role in the organization of the city, and in service of progressive urban transformation; they are also sites of social reproduction of power, privilege, and inequality. Social reproduction takes on the guise of racialized conflict, but is actually ootedr in failed rituals. Along with highlighting the importance of ritual, the paths of conflict, and the contradictory processes that shape community arts organizations, my research draws attention to the multiplicity of urban identity and the role of art and culture in creating real and imagined cities. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education First Advisor Stanton E. Wortham Second Advisor Charles L. Bosk Keywords Cultural sociology, Organizations, Race, Social change, Social conflict, Urban sociology Subject Categories Sociology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/744 IMAGINING THE CITY: RITUAL AND CONFLICT IN THE URBAN ART DEMOCRACY Carolyn Chernoff A DISSERTATION in Education and Sociology Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 Supervisor of Dissertation Co-Supervisor of Dissertation ______________________ ______________________ Stanton E.F. Wortham, Ph.D. Charles L. Bosk, Ph.D. Judy & Howard Berkowitz Professor of Education Professor of Sociology Graduate Group Chairperson Graduate Group Chairperson ______________________ ______________________ Stanton E.F. Wortham, Ph.D. Emily Hannum, Ph.D. Judy & Howard Berkowitz Professor of Education Associate Professor of Sociology and Education Dissertation Committee: Randall Collins, Ph.D. Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology Kathleen D. Hall, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Education and Anthropology IMAGINING THE CITY: RITUAL AND CONFLICT IN THE URBAN ART DEMOCRACY COPYRIGHT 2013 Carolyn Chernoff iii For Richard and Raven, always and forever iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT Throughout my fieldwork, I have found that the myth of the lone ethnographer is just that: a myth. Time and again, I have been helped tremendously by people with no reason to be generous to a social scientist, and yet generous indeed have been the people I worked with at Rainbow Tornado, Picture This, Art Works, other community-based organizations, and the University of Pennsylvania. All reasonable attempts at anonymity keep me from mentioning you by name, but please know that though your contributions and friendship may not always show up in these pages, I could not research or write without you. Though my dissertation looks like criticism, it is a loving criticism, and one I write because of what you have taught me about life in the Urban Art Democracy. Among the many, many people who have made my work possible, several have gone above and beyond. I owe a very sincere debt of gratitude to Audra Rogers, Carolanne Saunders, Aline Rowans, and Nancy Bolinski in the Penn Sociology Department for your friendship, many kindnesses, and ability to help a joint Ph.D. student navigate the labyrinth of bureaucracy and paperwork; at the Graduate School of Eduation, I literally could not have made it through without the warmth and assistance of Maureen Cotterill, dear friend, and the support of Assistant Dean Lois MacNamara Ed.D. and Betty Dean. Jessie Harper, Ed.D., and Alexander Posecznick, Ph.D., made the fourth floor of GSE a rigorous space of research and conversation. I thank you all. My dissertation committee has been a dream team. I am grateful for the generosity, patience, and rigor that Stanton Wortham, Chuck Bosk, Randy Collins, and Kathy Hall have all brought to the process of my dissertation, my graduate education in general, and their support of me very specifically. I must thank Zach Nachson, IT Support Specialist at the Graduate School of Education. Zach, you have saved me, my data, and my computers more times than I would like to count. Thank you for your gentleness, your generosity, and your good humor. There are many people who have believed in me and supported me in my research, in my studies, and in my life. Thank you to my family: Richard Hoak and Raven Louise Hoak-Chernoff; Loren and David Chernoff; Marc, Cynthia, and Campbell Chernoff; Ruth Marver Radewagen Newmann; and Bernice Rakes. Many dear friends and colleagues have helped me wrestle with my dissertation; chief among them have been Mary Henderson and Rachel Wenrick. Other very important players in the art lady and girl genius networks of inspiration and friendship include Maori K.E. Holmes; Rashida Holmes; Mariame Kaba; Annie Lok; Rashmi Kumar, Ed.D.; and the daily support of the online grrl gang. Special thanks to Michelle Muñoz-Miller, Ph.D., for feedback at a critical juncture. Finally, there are two men who have impacted my life significantly: If not for the strong suggestion of John Puckett, I would not have begun doctoral work. If not for the mentorship of Stanton E.F. Wortham, I might not have finished. v ABSTRACT IMAGINING THE CITY: RITUAL AND CONFLICT IN THE URBAN ART DEMOCRACY Carolyn Chernoff Stanton E.F. Wortham, Ph.D. Charles L. Bosk, Ph.D. Recent scholarship and public policy ask arts to drive economic growth for urban revitalization; this perspective takes positive social interaction as a given within the larger project of arts-based urban economic development. However, the social life of community arts organizations provides another lens to explore the role of art and arts organizations within the contemporary city. Within the fractured context of American cities (racial and ideological segregation), community arts provide a testing ground for social interaction across demographic difference: a place where “culture builds community” (Stern & Siefert, 2002), albeit not unproblematically. This dissertation explores democratic practices around diversity within majority-white urban community arts organizations devoted to progressive social change. Based on fieldwork, interviews, and archival research conducted at three Philadelphia nonprofit organizations over the course of eight years, I ask how progressive community arts organizations function as learning spaces, mediate and reproduce social difference, and enable new relationships with the city. Community arts play a unique role in the organization of the city, and in service of progressive urban transformation; vi they are also sites of social reproduction of power, privilege, and inequality. Social reproduction takes on the guise of racialized conflict, but is actually rooted in failed rituals. Along with highlighting the importance of ritual, the paths of conflict, and the contradictory processes that shape community arts organizations, my research draws attention to the multiplicity of urban identity and the role of art and culture in creating real and imagined cities. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT………………………………………………….………iv ABSTRACT…………………………………………….………………….………..v LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………..…….…viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS…………………………..…………………………...ix CHAPTER ONE: PHILADELPHIA STORIES…………………………………………………….….1 CHAPTER TWO: IN SEARCH OF EXPERIENCE…………………………………………….……..15 CHAPTER THREE: MIDWEST MANNERS MEET PHILLY REALNESS………………………..…..37 CHAPTER FOUR: WHEN RITUALS FAIL…………………………………………………………....65 CHAPTER FIVE: WE’RE ALL WHITE HERE…………………………………………….…..….....95 CHAPTER SIX: IMAGINING THE CITY……………………………………………………….…..127 CHAPTER SEVEN: RITUAL AND CONFLICT IN THE URBAN ART DEMOCRACY……………..148