Addressing discrimination and inequality among groups:

Poverty reduction, Hunger, Poverty, Discrimination, economic and political inequalities, Policies, Private sector employment,

We Sing for Change: Straight Edge Punk and Social Change

“With hope in our hearts and bricks in our hands, we sing for change”[1] With genuine feeling and at the tops of their voices almost 1,000 people sang this together in Glasgow’s Garage in 2006. Stranger’s leaning into one another, arms wrapped around shoulders and fists raised high to yell the lyric as a united voice. Underneath this impromptu display of comradeship and solidarity lies the key fundamental to understanding the power and potency of hardcore punk both as a musical genre and as a subculture. This song, Bricks, is not one of Rise Against’s singles from this album, it has not been played on MTV or radio stations and it was not listed in music magazines as a song to check out / recommend, yet it is the song that elicited the greatest response that evening. The reason for this response? These lyrics outline the both the purpose and concern of hardcore punk, change, specifically social change of one sort or another. Social change that is largely wrought and / or articulated through musical expression. Understanding this statement requires a brief insight into punk as a musical genre and as a social movement. The research presented within this paper is based on field work which took place in San Francisco and the Bay Area in 2009, throughout the UK in 2010, and in Chicago in 2011. It is also draws on the experiences and insights of the researcher, a long time adherent to Straight Edge. The interviewees, informants and participants for this study ranged in age from 25 to 58. In total 83 interviews[2] and extended conversations[3] were carried out: 29 in San Francisco and the Bay Area, 7 in Chicago, and 47 in the UK (specifically, in Glasgow, Durham, Newcastle, Dundee, Edinburgh, Belfast, Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester). [1] ‘Bricks’ by Rise Against, from the album The Sufferer and The Witness, 2006, Geffen Records. [2] Each participant was explicitly asked to take part in an interview and gave their consent. Typically, the interview took place immediately following consent and lasted between one and two hours. On 9 occasions a pre-arranged date and venue was chosen, with the participant knowing they were arriving for an in-depth interview which would last over four hours. Two interviews in the UK were conducted over a number of meetings with the participant, each totalling over 9 hours of interview material. 5 individuals in total were interviewed via email, due to issues such as band tours and inaccessibility of location within the time scale. All interviewees were given a choice as to how they wanted to be named within the research: they could use their first name, their initials, or a pseudonym of my choice (which I based on names within my family). Pseudonyms are indicated through the use of single quotation marks. All interviews were recorded and transcribed, then shown to the interviewee for final consensus before being utilised in written form for research. [3]Typically, and not unusually within the subculture, I would be approached, due to the clothes I was wearing or my tattoos. A conversation would ensue and as it developed I would explain my research. In a number of instances the individual or group would then want to contribute their ideas as a natural part of the conversation, but they did not want to give a formal interview. In these instances, the conversations were not digitally recorded, but I did ask and receive permission to make notes on them, and had each of the participants sign the notes to acknowledge that they had seen them and gave permission for me to use them for research purposes. On average these conversations would last between 20 minutes and an hour. (In Berkeley it was not uncommon for the conversation to continue when I next encountered the same people, either on the street or at shows.) All written and signed notes have been retained by the researcher

The Outcasts: Punk in Northern Ireland During The Troubles

Good Vibrations is an independent movie that seeks to illustrate through the use of familiar tropes the importance of music as a transformative experience. The above trailer demonstrates the centrality of punk music as a means to change through relationships, do-it-yourself, and resistance. The movie is based on the life of Terri Hooley, specifically his role in the nascent punk scene in Belfast as something of an unlikely hero and ringmaster. In focusing on Hooley the movie serves up a number of points key to this chapter: the power of music to sidestep divisions and boundaries; how much the troubles in Northern Ireland were a background part of everyday life for most people; the ability within punk to cherry pick aspects and times and conveniently ignore or marginalise other equally important but less ‘sellable’ dimensions. This chapter will be structured to deal with each of these three areas as a means of demonstrating that Northern Ireland had one of the most vital and vibrant punk scenes in the UK at the time of the troubles. Vital in that, it was often the only space for Catholics and Protestants to mix and interact. Vibrant in that it was largely isolated from the drama and media wrangling of the mainland punk scenes and so had to form and inform itself. The chapter is based on the auto-ethnography of the author and on a sociological and religious studies research project on punk during and after the troubles

The Anarchist, the Punk Rocker and the Buddha walk into a bar(n): Dharma Punx and Rebel Dharma

Punk rock is known for its frenetic energy. Its aggressive, anger-driven music is born from the seething cauldron of discontent. Anarchism is the ‘ideology’ that often underpins punk, but anarchism exists beyond punk in its drive to create a new social order fuelled by discontent at the current systems. There exists a large self-identifying anarchist group within the wider punk subculture, but it is only one group within a myriad of understandings of punk. Not all anarchists are punks; not all punks are anarchists. On first glance, Buddhism, as an ancient practice of mindfulness intended to lead the individual into an awareness of the nature of being through calming activities such as meditation, appears incongruous with anarchism and punk. However, a shift away from understanding Buddhism as a religion and an examination of the purposes behind Buddhism, punk and anarchy reveal a synchronicity. This has culminated in the creation of groups such as the Dharma Punx (US) and the Rebel Dharma (UK), which this article will explore and outline

"Punk Rock Is My Religion": An Exploration of Straight Edge punk as a Surrogate of Religion

Using a distinctly and deliberately interdisciplinary approach to the subject of religion and spirituality as it presents itself within modern Western Societies today, this thesis argues that Straight Edge hardcore punk is a surrogate for religion. The term surrogate is used to denote the notion of a successor and a protector and provider of nourishment. It has been re-interpreted from Theodore Ziolkowski’s work on the same term in ‘Modes of Faith’, in which he examines surrogates for religion which emerged during the early part of the 20th century. An in-depth study, both theoretical and ethnographic in nature and presentation, of Straight Edge hardcore punk is provided to demonstrate that traditionally held categories of religion, secular, sacred and profane are being dismantled and re-built around ideas of authenticity, community, integrity, d.i.y and spirituality. Through the syncretic practices of the Straight Edge adherents they are de-essentialising religion and thus enabling us to re-consider the question of what religion is or could be. This thesis relies on theoretical ideas, interview quotes, informant quotes, researcher taken photographs, and interviewee created or utilised images, tattoos, graffiti and flyers. All of these are interspersed with song lyrics from various bands relevant to the time period under discussion and the themes being drawn out. Much like the adherents themselves, this thesis exists very much within the space of the ‘in-between’, which creates and reacts to necessary tensions throughout

When My Ships Come Sailing Home

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/5093/thumbnail.jp

A hierarchy of happiness? Mokken scaling analysis of the Oxford Happiness Inventory

The items of the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI, a self-report assessment of happiness, are subjected to an analysis for hierarchy among its items. By using Mokken scaling analyses we can assess whether items can reliably be ordered between persons as severity indicators on a latent trait; in this case, a latent trait of Happiness. OHI item-level data from 1024 participants were entered into the Mokken Scaling Procedure (MSP) seeking reliable scales with H > 0.30. 12 OHI items formed a reliable and statistically significant hierarchy. However, the MSP values indicate a 'weak' scale. The 'most difficult' (happiest) item on the scale is 'feeling energetic' and the 'least difficult' (least happy) is 'I have fun'. Items in the scale are consistent with what is already known about both happiness and low mood. The reduction in the OHI's items from 29 to 12 in the Mokken scale may have utility making it more accessible to participants as well as identifying items with reliably different levels of 'difficulty'. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

The perforated borders of labour migration and the formal state : meta-state and para-state regulation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the variation in migrant labour market regimes and what these reveal about variant patterns of state and extra state regulation in two contemporary political economies. Design/methodology/approach Research based upon a participatory action research agenda in Mexico and the north of Ireland. Migrant workers and their families where involved in the project and its development. This included participation in the research design, its focus and purpose. Findings Migrant workers experiences of labour market subordination are part of wider processes of subordination and exclusion involving both the state, but also wider, often meta- and para-state, agents. In different locations, states and contexts, the precarity experienced by migrant workers and their families highlights the porosity of the formal rational legal state and moreover, in the current economic context, the compatibility of illegality and state sponsored neoliberal economic policies. Research limitations/implications It is important to extend this study to other geographic and political economy spaces. Practical implications The study challenges the limits of state agency suggesting the need for extra state, i.e. civil society, participation to support and defend migrant workers. Originality/value Notwithstanding the two very different socio-economic contexts, the paper reveals that the interaction, dependence and restructuring of migrant labour markets can be understood within the context of meta- and para-state activities that link neoliberal employment insecurities. Migrants' experiences illustrate the extent to which even formal legal employment relations can also be sustained by para- and meta- (illegal and alegal) actions and institutions