Scenes are dynamic social relationships and experiences that are comprised of networks, locations, and rituals. Scene networks form in recognizable meeting places around activities such as live music shows, bike collectives, drag performances and gambling rings. This paper explores how cultural producers (i.e. band members, DJs, event organizers) perceive and use networks, locations and rituals in Pittsburgh's grassroots music and arts scene. Whereas previous research examines th experience of a single scene, this study explores the many ways cultural producers activate a variety of scenes under the same umbrella. This study examines how predominately white scene networks perceive and benefit from gentrification while also attending to how gender and sexuality affect where scene events are held. Women and queer identified artists do not have the same options as their heterosexual male counterparts when it comes to creating scene events in places opened by urban revitalization projects. This study also demonstrates that the rituals cultural producers engage are particular to the identities they seek to enact. Cultural producers use rituals of identity to deconstruct hegemonic constructions of gender and sexuality. Through performance rituals, participants empower stigmatized social identities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12112008-103210 |
| Date | 14 January 2009 |
| Creators | McDowell, Amy Denise |
| Contributors | Professor Akiko Hashimoto, Professor Kathleen M. Blee, Professor Deborah B. Gould |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12112008-103210/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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