Pop Speculation: Tracing Geography, Investment, and Identity in São Paulo's Hip Hop and Open Mic Scenes

This article addresses the relationship between spatial affinities and socio-­‐ economic capital investment in hip hop culture as part of an assessment of urban development in Brazil’s largest city. Through a selected braiding of ethnographic reflections, urban cultural histories, and social theories of speculation, I argue that performers, particularly as they participate in institution-building projects (casas de hip hop) and open microphone circuits (saraus), have influenced the flows of investment and the social geography of expressive culture in São Paulo. Whether these dynamics signify a “sell-out” or shrewd negotiation is up for debate but what is clear is that the value of the marginalized periphery (periferia) has changed and with it the overall conceptualization of São Paulo

Cape Verdean Kriolu as an Epistemology of Contact

Kriolu as language and sentiment represents a “contact perspective”, an outlook on life and medium of identification historically structured by the encounter. Cape Verde was born out of an early creole formation and movement is an essential part of Cape Verdean practices of language and identity. Most recently, the Portuguese state and third-party real estate developers have provided another scenario in the long series of (dis)emplacement dramas for Cape Verdeans as Lisbon administrations have pushed to demolish “improvised” housing and regroup people into “social” neighborhoods. I argue that neighborhoods such as Casal da Boba are not simply “contact zones” where differences are made manifest and subaltern agency is potentially given a stage. In the case of Cape Verdean Kriolu in Lisbon, the concept of “contact” is an epistemological one. This essay connects the empirical realities of Lisbon neighborhoods to the historically structured experiences of contact vis-à-vis colonialism, migration and language.O crioulo, como língua e sentimento, representa uma “perspetiva de contato”, uma visão sobre a vida e um meio de identificação que se estrutura historicamente através do encontro. Cabo Verde nasceu de uma formação crioula e o movimento é parte essencial das práticas linguísticas e identitárias cabo-verdianas. Recentemente, o Estado português e promotores imobiliários criaram um novo cenário na longa série de dramas de (des)localização dos cabo-verdianos, quando os municípios da Área Metropolitana de Lisboa aceleraram a demolição de casas “improvisadas” e o realojamento dos seus moradores em bairros “sociais”. Defendo que bairros como o Casal da Boba não são simplesmente “zonas de contato” onde as diferenças se manifestam e a agência subalterna adquire potencial visibilidade. No caso do crioulo cabo-verdiano em Lisboa, o conceito de “contato” é epistemológico. O presente ensaio liga as realidades concretas dos bairros de Lisboa às experiências de contato historicamente estruturadas face ao colonialismo, à migração e à língua

REVERSAL OF FORTUNES?: SÃO PAULO YOUTH REDIRECT URBAN DEVELOPMENT

This article addresses the relationship between space and investment in two forms of popular culture as part of an assessment of urban development in Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo. Through a selected braiding of ethnographic reflections, urban histories, and social theories of speculation, I argue that the youth cultural practices of hip hop and “saraus” or open microphone talent shows have influenced the flows of investment and the social geography of expressive culture in São Paulo. Consequently, the value of the marginalized periphery (“periferia”) has changed and with it the overall conceptualization of São Paulo

A cidade está em falência: viva a cidade! - Entrevista com Morten Nielsen

Entrevista com Morten Nielsen, realizada por Derek Pardue

Desempenhando atitude: uma imposição de espaço e gênero pelos hip hoppers brasileiros

In São Paulo hip hoppers utilize the phrase"conquistar espaço" ubiquitously to evaluate a hip hop event or the "movement" as a whole. Thus, space is an organic category of analysis and one, I argue, that provides insight into the relative status of class, race, gender and sexuality among hip hoppers. Since hip hoppers often claim to represent the periferia, their narratives and particularly their expression of atitude potentially demonstrate significant relationships between youth and working-class identities and popular cultural practices. In my opinion, hip hop performance is both productively critical and disappointedly conservative. I draw from several years of ethnographic fieldwork since 1995 to demonstrate my argument.Em São Paulo, os hip hoppers utilizam a frase"conquistar espaço" para avaliar um evento ou o "movimento" em geral. Assim, o espaço ou território é uma categoria orgânica de análise e, ao mesmo tempo, oferece uma perspectiva sobre o status relativo de classe, raça, gênero e sexualidade entre os hip hoppers. Enquanto clamam representar a periferia, suas narrativas e, especificamente, sua expressão de"atitude", potencialmente demonstram relações significantes entre as identidades e as práticas de cultura popular. Em minha opinião, a performance de hip hop produz críticas positivas, mas reproduz ideologias conservadoras. Meu argumento baseia-se em pesquisa de campo realizada desde 1995

“Cover the Fire” or Live in the Dusk

Informed by recent fieldwork with “Muslim youth” in Aarhus, Denmark, West African migrants in Lisbon, Portugal and personal experiences of mobility in both cities, I deploy dusk as a sensorial epistemology and fiction as a complementary aesthetic methodology as I attempt to write the city (creatively) back into the (critical) urban. Forays into fiction are pertinent, because it is through imagination and the creativity of textual expression that many find their voice and emerge from (daily) routine when confronted with the night. The image-texts presented are intended not as momentous highlights but as provocative suggestions of the nocturnal banal in terms of urban presences, borders and human-environment relationships. The overarching premise is that the difference of dusk is not a loss or necessarily a waning, but rather a generative force of meaning and belonging.Informé par un récent travail de terrain avec la « jeunesse musulmane » à Aarhus, au Danemark, les migrants ouest-africains à Lisbonne, au Portugal et les expériences personnelles de mobilité dans les deux villes, je déploie le crépuscule en tant qu’épistémologie sensorielle et la fiction comme méthodologie esthétique complémentaire alors que je tente d’écrire le la ville (créativement) dans l’urbain (critique). Les incursions dans la fiction sont pertinentes, car c’est par l’imagination et la créativité de l’expression textuelle que beaucoup trouvent leur voix et sortent de la routine (quotidienne) face à la nuit. Les images-textes présentées ne sont pas conçues comme des moments forts mais comme des suggestions provocatrices du banal nocturne en termes de présences urbaines, de frontières et de relations homme-environnement. La prémisse fondamentale est que la différence du crépuscule n’est pas une perte ou nécessairement un déclin, mais plutôt une force génératrice de sens et d’appartenance

Cape Verdean Kriolu as an Epistemology of Contact

Kriolu as language and sentiment represents a “contact perspective”, an outlook on life and medium of identification historically structured by the encounter. Cape Verde was born out of an early creole formation and movement is an essential part of Cape Verdean practices of language and identity. Most recently, the Portuguese state and third-party real estate developers have provided another scenario in the long series of (dis)emplacement dramas for Cape Verdeans as Lisbon administrations have pushed to demolish “improvised” housing and regroup people into “social” neighborhoods. I argue that neighborhoods such as Casal da Boba are not simply “contact zones” where differences are made manifest and subaltern agency is potentially given a stage. In the case of Cape Verdean Kriolu in Lisbon, the concept of “contact” is an epistemological one. This essay connects the empirical realities of Lisbon neighborhoods to the historically structured experiences of contact vis-à-vis colonialism, migration and language

Presentation: Right to the city: a theoretical problem and an empirical necessity

This essay serves as an introduction to the Special Issue entitled Right to the City: a theoretical problem and an empirical necessity. The text is divided into two parts. First, we critically review the academic literature that informs directly the idea of the city as a socio-spatial and political dynamic, in other words, a continual production designed by different social actors. We focus on contemporary perspectives from the Social Sciences, which, beginning with Lefebvre, reckon the “right to the city” as a field of disputes and negotiations. Second, we summarize the essays in relation to the proposed epistemology of the dossier.Este ensaio abre o dossiê Teoria Social Urbana e Direito à Cidade: um debate interdisciplinar. O texto está dividido em duas partes. Na parte inicial, revisamos a literatura que informa, de modo mais direto, a ideia de “cidade” como dinâmica socioespacial e política, produção contínua de sujeitos sociais. Para tanto, discutimos abordagens das ciências sociais contemporâneas que, a partir de Henri Lefebvre, pensaram o “direito à cidade” como um campo de disputas e negociações. Por fim, introduzimos as contribuições que integram esta edição, apresentando os resumos articulados dos textos em relação à proposta epistemológica do dossiê

Africanos e Afrodescendentes em Portugal: Redefinindo Práticas, Projetos e Identidades

Este número temático dos Cadernos de Estudos Africanos reúne sete artigos que oferecem outros tantos retratos das condições de vida e de dinâmicas socioculturais recentes entre a população de origem ou proveniência africana e afrodescendente na sociedade portuguesa contemporânea. Focados na Área Metropolitana de Lisboa, onde esta população se concentra, e baseados em pesquisa etnográfica, os primeiros seis artigos abordam as práticas de ajuda mútua dos imigrantes laborais cabo-verdianos em tempo de crise, a racialização da identidade entre jovens de ascendência cabo-verdiana, as cenas urbanas e transnacionais do hip-hop e do kuduro, o associativismo imigrante das mulheres santomenses, e os percursos de vida dos indianos do Gujarate com passagem por Moçambique. O artigo final ensaia uma panorâmica das representações de africanos e afrodescendentes na literatura e no cinema portugueses contemporâneos. Concluem este número duas recensões de livros recentes, o primeiro sobre a integração dos imigrantes africanos em Portugal e o segundo sobre a formação de cidades coloniais em diferentes fases do império português