front cover of Activist Archives
Activist Archives
Youth Culture and the Political Past in Indonesia
Doreen Lee
Duke University Press, 2016
In Activist Archives Doreen Lee tells the origins, experiences, and legacy of the radical Indonesian student movement that helped end the thirty-two-year dictatorship in May 1998. Lee situates the revolt as the most recent manifestation of student activists claiming a political and historical inheritance passed down by earlier generations of politicized youth. Combining historical and ethnographic analysis of "Generation 98," Lee offers rich depictions of the generational structures, nationalist sentiments, and organizational and private spaces that bound these activists together. She examines the ways the movement shaped new and youthful ways of looking, seeing, and being—found in archival documents from the 1980s and 1990s; the connections between politics and place; narratives of state violence; activists' experimental lifestyles; and the uneven development of democratic politics on and off the street. Lee illuminates how the interaction between official history, collective memory, and performance came to define youth citizenship and resistance in Indonesia’s transition to the post-Suharto present. 
 
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front cover of East African Hip Hop
East African Hip Hop
Youth Culture and Globalization
Mwenda Ntarangwi
University of Illinois Press, 2008

In this book, Mwenda Ntarangwi analyzes how young hip hop artists in the East African nations of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania showcase the opportunities and challenges brought by the globalization of music. Combining local popular music traditions with American and Jamaican styles of rap, East African hip hop culture reflects the difficulty of creating commercially accessible music while honoring tradition and East African culture. Ntarangwi pays special attention to growing cross-border exchanges within East African hip hop, collaborations in recording music and performances, and themes and messages that transcend local geographic boundaries.

In using hip hop as a medium for discussing changes in East African political, economic, and social conditions, artists vocalize their concerns about economic policies, African identity, and political establishments, as well as important issues of health (such as HIV/AIDS), education, and poverty. Through three years of fieldwork, rich interviews with artists, and analysis of live performances and more than 140 songs, Ntarangwi finds that hip hop provides youth an important platform for social commentary and cultural critique and calls attention to the liberating youth music culture in East Africa.

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front cover of Global Storytelling, vol. 3, no. 2
Global Storytelling, vol. 3, no. 2
Satirical Activism and Youth Culture in and Beyond COVID-19 China: Journal of Digital and Moving Images
Special Issue Editor: Haiqing Yu
Michigan Publishing Services, 2024
Special Issue Editor: Haiqing Yu

Haiqing Yu. COVID-19, Satirical Activism, and Chinese Youth Culture: An Introduction

Research Articles
Ying Zhu and Junqi Peng.  From Diaosi to Sang to Tangping: The Chinese DST Youth Subculture Online
Shaohua Guo. Moments of "Madness": Cynicism in Times of COVID
Howard Choy. Laughter in the Time of Coronavirus: Epidemic Humor and Satire in Chinese Women's Digital Diaries
Shaoyu Tang. Political In Between: Streaming Stand-Up Comedy and Feminist Reckoning in Contemporary Mainland China
Jingxue Zhang and Charlie Yi Zhang. The Power of Citation: Feminist Counter-Appropriation of State Discourses in Post-Reform China

Book Reviews
Ethan Tussey. Revised Research Methodology for the Age of Media Industries Speculation - Review of Specworld: Folds, Faults, and Fractures in Embedded Creator Industries by John Thornton Caldwell, University of California Press, 2023
Michael Keane. Precarious Creativity and the State in New Era China - Review of Chinese Creator Economies: Labor and Bilateral Creative Workers by Jian Lin, New York University Press, 2023
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front cover of Voices in Aerosol
Voices in Aerosol
Youth Culture, Institutional Attunement, and Graffiti in Urban Mexico
Caitlin Frances Bruce
University of Texas Press, 2024

How a city government in central Mexico evolved from waging war on graffiti in the early 2000s to sanctioning its creation a decade later, and how youth navigated these changing conditions for producing art.

The local government, residents, and media outlets in León, Mexico, treated graffiti as a disease until the state began sponsoring artistic graffiti through a program of its own. In Voices in Aerosol, the first book-length study of state-sponsored graffiti, Caitlin Frances Bruce considers the changing perceptions and recognition of graffiti artists, their right to the city, and the use of public space over the span of eighteen years (2000–2018). Focusing on the midsized city of León, Bruce offers readers a look at the way negotiations with the neoliberal state unfolded at different levels and across decades.

Issues brought to light in this case study, such as graffiti as a threat and graffiti as a sign of gentrification, resonate powerfully with those germane to other urban landscapes throughout the Western Hemisphere and beyond. Combining archival work, interviews, considerations of urban planning, local politics in Mexico, and insights gained by observing graffiti events and other informal artistic encounters, Bruce offers a new lens through which to understand the interplay between sanctioned and unsanctioned forms of cultural expression. Ultimately, Voices in Aerosol builds a strong case for graffiti as a contested tool for "voicing" public demands.

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front cover of The War of My Generation
The War of My Generation
Youth Culture and the War on Terror
Kieran, David
Rutgers University Press, 2015
Following the 9/11 attacks, approximately four million Americans have turned eighteen each year and more than fifty million children have been born. These members of the millennial and post-millennial generation have come of age in a moment marked by increased anxiety about terrorism, two protracted wars, and policies that have raised questions about the United States's role abroad and at home. Young people have not been shielded from the attacks or from the wars and policy debates that followed. Instead, they have been active participants—as potential military recruits and organizers for social justice amid anti-immigration policies, as students in schools learning about the attacks or readers of young adult literature about wars. 

The War of My Generation is the first essay collection to focus specifically on how the terrorist attacks and their aftermath have shaped these new generations of Americans. Drawing from a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, and literary studies, the essays cover a wide range of topics, from graphic war images in the classroom to computer games designed to promote military recruitment to emails from parents in the combat zone. The collection considers what cultural factors and products have shaped young people's experience of the 9/11 attacks, the wars that have followed, and their experiences as emerging citizen-subjects in that moment. Revealing how young people understand the War on Terror—and how adults understand the way young people think—The War of My Generation offers groundbreaking research on catastrophic events still fresh in our minds. 
 
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front cover of Youth Culture in Global Cinema
Youth Culture in Global Cinema
Edited by Timothy Shary and Alexandra Seibel
University of Texas Press, 2006

Coming of age is a pivotal experience for everyone. So it is no surprise that filmmakers around the globe explore the experiences of growing up in their work. From blockbuster U.S. movies such as the Harry Potter series to thought-provoking foreign films such as Bend It Like Beckham and Whale Rider, films about youth delve into young people's attitudes, styles, sexuality, race, families, cultures, class, psychology, and ideas. These cinematic representations of youth also reflect perceptions about youth in their respective cultures, as well as young people's worth to the larger society. Indeed, as the contributors to this volume make plain, films about young people open a very revealing window on the attitudes and values of cultures across the globe.

Youth Culture in Global Cinema offers the first comprehensive investigation of how young people are portrayed in film around the world. Eighteen established film scholars from eleven different national backgrounds discuss a wide range of films that illuminate the varied conditions in which youth live. The essays are grouped thematically around the issues of youthful resistance and rebellion; cultural and national identity, including religion and politics; and sexual maturation, including gender distinctions and coming-of-age queer. Some essays engage in close readings of films, while others examine the advertising and reception of films or investigate psychological issues. The volume concludes with filmographies of over 700 youth-related titles arranged by nation and theme.

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