Institute of English and American Studies

Popular music constitutes an important mode of public expression which can stimulate not only a
change in the public image of place but also wider social and cultural communities in shrinking cities.
Focusing on the internationally successful indie-rap band Kraftklub from the Eastern German city of
Chemnitz, we analyse how they visually, rhetorically and musically address shrinkage and the GDR
as a critical comment on municipal memory and identity politis. Contextualizing Kraftklub’s oeuvre
with the official city marketing campaign, we show that popular music scenes help establish a new,
inclusive and confident post-industrial identity as well as contribute to a more positive urban image.
The article can be downloaded at the journal's website (see link).

Urban decline is conventionally framed as a devastating process both for the physical fabric as well as for the social structure of urban communities. Particularly in mass media and popular culture, the common representation of declining urban spaces is dominated by images of physical decay and destitute people as well as narratives of social failure, lack of morality, and crime. These spaces and communities are thus presented as having little to nothing to offer with respect to educational achievement, creative expressivity and intellectual development. Indeed, at the same time as some cities, such as San Francisco and Portland, have become celebrated icons of growth, creative energy and hip intellectualism, others, including Detroit and Newark, seem to have become mired in their image as examples of economic decline, social destitution, and educational apathy. They thus appear to be what social critic Chris Hedges has called " sacrifice zones, " economically exploited, politically abandoned, and socially marginalized areas without hope. Whereas Hedges' critical term implicates structural forces of e.g. neoliberal politics and institutionalized racism in these cities' decline, dominant cultural representations of e.g. the South Bronx of the 1970s and 1980s or contemporary Detroit in photography, film, and TV not only focus on dereliction, decay, and crime, but also tend to lay much of the blame for the decay on the moral, educational, and motivational shortcomings of the people living in these areas, often racial and ethnic minorities. These cultural texts thereby perpetuate the stigmatizing representation by what urban critic Robert Beauregard has called the hegemonic " voices of decline " and fail to acknowledge that declining urban spaces oftentimes open up new opportunities to rethink existing norms, dominant values, and, most importantly, conventional pedagogies.

This panel provides a new take on urban decline by interrogating and elevating the roles and possibilities of education and pedagogy in those spaces. It seeks to uncover popular cultural strategies and educational/pedagogical practices of dissent and resistance to dominant narratives of moral decay and physical decline of places such as Detroit or The Bronx. Looking at particularly visual material and cultural practices, the proposed panel examines the alternative voices and transformative spatial practices emerging from urban decline contexts as forms of discursive resistance that create new physical and imagined spaces in which teaching and learning can happen outside of established institutions. By engaging in an aesthetic of dissent, popular cultural texts and practices are providing possibilities of a subversive and critical reaction to dominant representations of marginalized urban spaces. They thereby engage in a transformative pedagogy that strives to educate and empower disenfranchised local and national communities. These dissenting voices thus challenge and undermine not only notions of apparently morally failing and economically hopeless cities that may be sacrificed but also issue a powerful critique of one-sided hegemonic representations of urban space in general.

Please send your abstract (500 words) and a short biography (350 words), to Eric Erbacher and Sina Nitzsche by 31 May 2017. We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Emceeing. DJing. Breaking. Graffiti. Hip-hop is commonly understood
to consist of these four elements. The idea of four elements is one of
hip-hop culture’s core narrative and most pervasive founding myth
since its beginnings in the Bronx in the 1970s. Yet, the idea of four
core elements has been highly contested since the beginning of the
culture as there is no unified definition of how many elements exist,
who defined them, and how they came together.

The second meeting of the European HipHop Studies Network
therefore explores one of hip-hop’s most central ideas, the ideas of
elements: Who defines them? What do they tell us about cultural,
social, and economic communities and boundaries across Europe?
How do these limits vary according to various contexts and practices
across Europe? What are their consequences for cultural production
and consumption? The objective of the meeting is to trace,
interrogate, and expand the notion of elements as central organizing
principles in hip-hop culture and their variations across Europe.

We invite papers, panels, performances, and contributions
from a wide variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and angles.
Scholarly disciplines include but are not limited to art history,
cultural studies, black studies, ethnography, geography, graffiti
studies, literary studies, musicology, pedagogy, performance studies,
philosophy, political science, sociology, and visual culture studies.

Artistic contributions include performances, themed panels of any
format, lecture-recitals, and philosophies which combine research
and praxis (or practice-as-research).
Artistic and scholarly proposals engaging with European hiphop’s
elements (those based both in Europe and outside of it)
should include a title, 250 word abstract of their contribution
and short biographical sketch. This should be submitted to
hiphopnetworkeurope@gmail.com no later than 31 January 2019.
We especially welcome papers that engage with less-academically visible work, and from artists and practitioners from a wider
variety of backgrounds. We hope to see you in Bristol!