Call for submissions
Anarcho-Punk Anthology
Mike Dines is seeking contributions from the wide spectrum of musicology and social sciences for an edited text on the anarcho-punk scene of the 1980s that will reflect upon its origins, its music(s), its identity, its legacy, its membership and circulation. Seven years ago, I was awarded my PhD for my research into the emergence of the anarcho-punk scene and, to my surprise, there are still no academic texts that fully unpack this fascinating movement and its politics. As such, I would like to put out a call for proposals in the hope that we might rectify this omission: and thus raising questions as to how we can define aesthetically, culturally, politically and ideologically the concept and meaning of the anarcho-punk scene. As such, the volume has guaranteed contributions from the likes of Andy Worthington, author of The Battle of the Beanfield and Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion, and Russell Bestley, whose co-edited book The Art of Punk is due for release. Furthermore, George McKay, Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Research Centre from the University of Salford will preface the volume. Perhaps the foremost academic in the field of alternative cultures and protest movements, George is the author of a number of books including Senseless Acts of Beauty: Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties and Glastonbury: A Very English Fair.
More specifically, this volume will adopt an essentially analytical perspective so as to raise questions initially over the origins of the scene and subsequently over its form, structure and cultural significance. The work will begin with an exploration into the way in which anarcho-punk emerged from first wave punk, illuminating those aspects which anarcho-punk appropriated, as well as discarded, from its predecessor. Thereafter, this volume will raise questions over the ways in which first wave punk and anarcho-punk used the concepts and ideas surrounding the terminology and concept of ‘anarchy’. Not least, the way in which anarcho-punk moved away from using ‘anarchy’ as mere connotation and ‘shock-value’, prioritising instead a more focused political debate; a step which laid particular emphasis on personal freedom from the constraints of government legislation.
Suggestions for chapters are invited exploring any of the following themes (this list is by no means exhaustive):
• Origins and legacy
• Political Appropriation: re-defining of ‘anarchism’ within the punk scene
• Notion of local/national ‘scene’, tribes, counterculture/subculture
• Music and the Performer: creativity, authorship, identity, problems with definition, crossing musical boundaries (such as The Tofu Love Frogs, Radical Dance Faction and Blaggers ITA)
• Reception: DiY culture, activism, ‘pay-no-more’ attitude at gigs, and for vinyl and tapes
• Lifestyle: Festival/squatting/traveller culture, vegetarianism, animal rights, ‘hunt-sabbing’, etc.
• Gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity and identity
• The art of the anarcho: use of record covers and associated merchandise to convey political/social ideals, stencils, graffiti
Other, more general, possible categories:
• The musical genres
• Associated subcultures
• Legacies
• Intellectual debates
• The media: reports, reception, gossip
Proposals should be 500 words maximum and should include keywords and a brief bio of the author. Submitting a proposal implies that it only contains original, non-published material and that it is not simultaneously being submitted to another publication.
The deadline for submissions is 1 October 2012. A decision on inclusions will be made by 1 December 2012 and chapters will need to be finalized by 1 June 2013 to allow time for final editing.
Proposals should be submitted electronically to: miked71uk@yahoo.co.uk
I look forward to hearing from you!
Dr. Mike Dines