Welcome

This is a blog dedicated to collecting and highlighting some of the interesting representations of urban culture and criminality that dot the webscape. Once urban ethnographers had to go deep into the inner-city to get a sense of how people were living, I just have to google or flick through Youtube. Geoff Pearson has shown us a pattern. Mainstream 'respectable' society tends to find fault with the behaviour of disadvantaged urban youth and reacts accordingly. This isn't restricted to criminal behaviour, but extends to cultural identities: the hoody, a humble garment, becomes a metaphor for a criminal lifestyle. Rap, grime and urban music become symbols around which the conservative galvanize their fears.

But that is all so 20th Century. Now, there is material floating around the web that would send the Telegraph into a tailspin, and they don't even know about it! The web has become the richest source of insights into the experience of urban youth. Let's explore it. I'm making no apologies about the writing here, this is a blog, not an academic paper. Equally, I'm not striving for an accurate portrayal of anyone, or anyone's lifestyle, in any deep way. I know that the sort of material that I'm going to be posting may propagate stereotypes, fail to see the bigger picture, be shallow, grossly misinformed, impressionistic, and probably downright patronising. So apologies in advance for that. Please feel free to comment and correct my infinite ignorance. Equally, bare in mind, that there's a certain pressure to keep this interesting, so overly-dramatic material is going to be sought out.

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johnny