Bomb alert: graffiti writing and urban space in London

Based on three years of ethnographic research undertaken in London amongst a loose network of what British Transport Police term ‘serious graffiti vandals’, this article considers how we might conceive theoretically of the interrelationships between graffiti writing, urban space and social control....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kindynis, Theo (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
In: The British journal of criminology
Year: 2018, Volume: 58, Issue: 3, Pages: 511-528
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Keywords:
Graffiti
Ethnography
Cultural criminology
Lefebvre, Henri
Urban space
Tagging
Kulturkriminologie
Sozialgeografie
Städtischer Raum
Taggen
Description
Summary:Based on three years of ethnographic research undertaken in London amongst a loose network of what British Transport Police term ‘serious graffiti vandals’, this article considers how we might conceive theoretically of the interrelationships between graffiti writing, urban space and social control. The article proceeds in two parts. By way of introduction, the first half of the article delineates some of the major subcultural elements that comprise the day-to-day practice of graffiti writing as it exists in present-day London. The second half of the article engages the theoretical work of Henri Lefebvre. It is suggested that graffiti can be understood as simultaneously disrupting authoritative spatial orderings, whilst superimposing its own alternative social geography onto the city.
ISSN:1464-3529
DOI:10.1093/bjc/azx040