Customer Reviews

The Graffiti Subculture: Youth, Masculinity and Identity in London and New York

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Allow me to be the first voice of dissent--while this is a thoroughly researched ethnography, the analysis was myopic and simply not intensive enough. My primary disapointment in this book was the author's failure to account for graffiti itself--as a language, as text, as communication. So little has been written on this subject, but Mcdonald spends only the smallest amount of time discussing the way that graffiti "performs". Of course, you say, she is a sociologist, and this is a subcultural study. But Mcdonald spends a great deal of this book focusing on masculine/feminine identity and graffiti art as a way to "perform" masculinity or femininity, through exclusion and inclusion. Graffiti is contextualized as an expression of anomie and disenfranchisement, and the illegal nature is brought to the forefront. But this could easily have been a book about gang members in London, as very little in this book would have been different. So much can be written about the way urban youth mediate themselves, and why. This book just does not account for communication and, in focusing on its subjects, neglects the very interfaces and connections that allow them to communicate and differentiate. Finally, the greatest weakness of this book is that it makes NO attempt to historicize graffiti. It's as if graffiti first appeared in the 80's out of a cultural vacuum. Without any sort of historical context, the hobby discussed in this volume means very, very little. Like other dissertations written for public consumption, the book spends a great deal of time recounting the history of 20th century criticism, which will make you tap your foot and roll your eyes if you've heard all of this before. I enjoy the approach--ethnography is a very important methodology, first person narration and personal anecdotes are too often absent from academic work (but becoming more popular in recent years)and the author's insistence that her subjects review and revise her work in the footnotes is very endearing, and perhaps revolutionary. I just wish that this book had actually discussed graffiti--how do we understand subjects without understanding their symbolic order?

Taking a different approach to the graffiti subject is not something I would usually recommend - most authors that have tried to write about graf and the surrounding culture produce forgettable books often ridiculed by graf writers. And if you don't appeal to the people you're writing about, where's the decency in that? Nancy Macdonald has totally blown any preconceptions you might have about her approcah to this subject - she looks at the culture from the perspective of an outsider looking in, but successfully involves the people she is writing about. Genuine quotes from writers (not just any writers, but respected and admired writers) prove that Macdonald carried out the necessary research to write an incredible book on the ideas and psychology behind graffiti. Although the content is generally text, the selection of photos are well chosen and effective at backing up the writing.

To cap off an already-essential book, Macdonald had the courtesy to hand the book back to the writers who contributed and helped. Their comments (in the back of the book) only enforce that this book is accurate and genuine - and for that alone, Macdonald should be applauded.

For anyone interested in graffiti - whether it's reading quotes about yard missions, or wanting to know the reasons behind why people write on trains and walls - this book is vital reading.

I couldn't recommend this book more highly to anybody with a serious interest in the lives and values of graffiti writers. The book is undeniably scholarly in tone, but is written in a clear and lucid manner which makes it accessible to anybody with an interest in the subject. Furthermore, Macdonald's effective discussion of her methodologies and the assumptions underlying her work make the book invaluable for anybody who wishes to look at a variety of subcultures, not just graffiti.

Even if you don't believe the blurb (or this review), believe the pages of glowing appraisals from graffiti writers that fill the back of the book. This is, in itself, a considerable achievment, and testifies to the high regard in which Macdonald's work is held by her subjects. If more writers bothered to check their work with the people they write about, this type of book would be held in higher regard outside the world of academia.

I myself have conducted extensive research on the subject and have found Nancy's book to be the most comprehensive study to date on the graffiti subculture. How a researcher can get so close to the essense of a very difficult subculture to penetrate is beyond me. An immensely interesting read, and a resource for study into any youth subcultural activity.

THOUGHTS:

At last! A sensible rational book on the graffiti sub-culture. This book presents established sociological schools of thought uniquely re-interpreted in a reader-friendly down to earth methodology. Should be compulsary reading for any student of Culture or Sociology, or indeed anyone with an interest in this controversial artform.I think it would be enlightening reading for those who continue to make political mileage about the deviance of graffiti , and force them to examine the roots and different branches of the sub-culture. I only wish I'd owned it at the beginning of my degree course but will be fully utilising it in my last year of essays. It is rare to read a book which balances academic strength with such clarity on the little studied role of female participants of sub-cultures.

Taking a different approach to the graffiti subject is not something I would usually recommend - most authors that have tried to write about graf and the surrounding culture produce forgettable books often ridiculed by graf writers. And if you don't appeal to the people you're writing about, where's the decency in that? Nancy Macdonald has totally blown any preconceptions you might have about her approach to this subject - she looks at the culture from the perspective of an outsider looking in, but successfully involves the people she is writing about. Genuine quotes from writers (not just any writers, but respected and admired writers) prove that Macdonald carried out the necessary research to write an incredible book on the ideas and psychology behind graffiti. Although the content is generally text, the selection of photos are well chosen and effective at backing up the writing.

To cap off an already-essential book, Macdonald had the courtesy to hand the book back to the writers who contributed and helped. Their comments (in the back of the book) only enforce that this book is accurate and genuine - and for that alone, Macdonald should be applauded.

For anyone interested in graffiti - whether it's reading quotes about yard missions, or wanting to know the reasons behind why people write on trains and walls - this book is vital reading.