
With origins in the South Bronx area of New York in the early 1970s, hip-hop culture is now produced and consumed globally. While hip-hop activities can be varied, hip-hop is generally considered to have four forms or “elements”: DJing, MCing, b-boying/b-girling, and graffiti. Although all four elements of hip-hop have become a part of many youth work initiatives across the globe, public debate and controversy continue to surround hip-hop activities. Very little research and literature has explored the complexities involved in the assembling of hip-hop activities in youth work sites of practice using these hip-hop elements. This study attends to the gap in hip-hop and human service literature by tracing how hip-hop activities were assembled in several sites of youth work activity in Christchurch, New Zealand. Actor-network theory (ANT) is the methodological framework used to map the assemblage of hip-hop-youth work activities in this study. ANT follows how action is distributed across both human and non-human actors. By recognising the potential agency of “things”, this research traces the roles played by human actors, such as young people and youth workers, together with those of non-human actors such as funding documents, social media, clothing, and youth venue equipment. This ethnographic study provides rich descriptions or “snapshots” of some of the key socio-material practices that shaped the enactment of hip-hop-youth work activities. These are derived from fieldwork undertaken between October 2009 and December 2011, where participant observation took place across a range of sites of hip-hop-youth work activity. In addition to this fieldwork, formal interviews were undertaken with 22 participants, the majority being youth workers, young people, and youth trust administrators. The ANT framework reveals the complexity of the task of assembling hip-hop in youth work worlds. The thesis traces the work undertaken by both human and non-human actors in generating youth engagement in hip-hop-youth work activities. Young people’s hip-hop interests are shown to be varied, multiple, and continually evolving. It is also shown how generating youth interest in hip-hop-youth work activities involved overcoming young people’s indifference or lack of awareness of the hip-hop resources a youth trust had on offer. Furthermore, the study highlights where hip-hop activities were edited or “tinkered” with to avoid hip-hop “bads”. The thesis also unpacks how needed resources were enlisted, and how funders’ interests were translated into supporting hip-hop groups and activities. By tracing the range of actors mobilised to enact hip-hop-youth work activities, this research reveals how some youth trusts could avoid having to rely on obtaining government funds for their hip-hop activities. The thesis also includes an examination of one youth trust’s efforts to reconfigure its hip-hop activities after the earthquakes that struck Christchurch city in 2010 and 2011. Working both in and on the world, the text that is this thesis is also understood as an intervention. This study constitutes a deliberate attempt to strengthen understandings of hip-hop as a complex, multiple, and fluid entity. It therefore challenges traditional media and literature representations that simplify and thus either stigmatise or celebrate hip-hop. As such, this study opens up possibilities to consider the opportunities, as well as the complexities of assembling hip-hop in youth work sites of practice.
Cleanup work begins in the Rutherford building.
Cleanup work begins in the Rutherford building.
Cleanup work begins in the Rutherford building.
Cleanup work begins in the Rutherford building.
An entry from Deborah Fitchett's blog for 27 May 2011, posted to Dreamwidth. The entry is titled, "In which a one-hour seminar takes up the entire work-day".The entry was downloaded on 16 April 2015.
An entry from Deborah Fitchett's blog for 27 May 2011, posted to Livejournal. The entry is titled, "In which a one-hour seminar takes up the entire work-day".The entry was downloaded on 13 April 2015.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Ovena Murray (front) and Leonie Dehn, with Roger the dog, inspect work being done on the Charles Street pump house in Kaiapoi. Waimakariri District Council staff are deferring low-priority works to free-up funds for earthquake recovery work".
Construction work taking place at the Oval Village.
Construction work taking place at the Oval Village.
Two surveyors carry out work on Colombo Street.
Construction work taking place at the Oval Village.
Construction work taking place at the Oval Village.
A graph showing changes in residential building work.
Demolition work on Terrace on the Park Apartments.
Construction work taking place at the Oval Village.
A photograph of street art on the back wall of the AJ Creative Glass building on Fitzgerald Avenue. The photographer attributes the work to Deus. The art work is titled "Li'l Elliot".
A photograph of street art on the back wall of the AJ Creative Glass building on Fitzgerald Avenue. The photographer attributes the work to Deus. The art work is titled "Li'l Elliot".
A photograph of the Butterfly fence on Ferry Road. The artwork on the fence shows the word "Butterfly", written with butterflies. There are also Māori motifs in the centre of the fence.
The Amala Organic Hair Spa under going renovation work.
One red and black fabric quilt comprised of pieced and appliquéd block work with both hand and machine stitching; machine quilted with embellishments and a one piece bordered back; an image of the ChristChurch Cathedral is in the centre and features pen work. Designed and quilted by the Coast Quilters of Whangaroa from fabric sent in by listener...
One landscape colour digital photograph taken on 27 April 2011 showing damage to London Street and demolition work being undertaken on the Harbourlight Theatre. Photograph taken looking west from the intersection of London Street with Oxford Street and Sumner Road. Architect In Christchurch's Central Business District many of the high profile d...
Did his work in the earthquake aftermath sway the voters?
A worker monitoring work being done in a residential area.
This paper presents the preliminary conclusions of the first stage of Wellington Case Study project (Regulating For Resilience in an Earthquake Vulnerable City) being undertaken by the Disaster Law Research Group at the University of Canterbury Law School. This research aims to map the current regulatory environment around improving the seismic resilience of the urban built environment. This work provides the basis for the second stage of the project which will map the regulatory tools onto the reality of the current building stock in Wellington. Using a socio-legal methodology, the current research examines the regulatory framework around seismic resilience for existing buildings in New Zealand, with a particularly focus on multi-storey in the Wellington CBD. The work focusses both on the operation and impact of the formal seismic regulatory tools open to public regulators (under the amended Building Act) as other non-seismic regulatory tools. As well as examining the formal regulatory frame, the work also provides an assessment of the interactions between other non-building acts (such as Health and Safety at Work Act 2015) on the requirements of seismic resilience. Other soft-law developments (particularly around informal building standards) are also examined. The final output of this work will presents this regulatory map in a clear and easily accessible manner and provide an assessment of the suitability of this at times confusing and patchy legal environment as Wellington moves towards becoming a resilient city. The final conclusion of this work will be used to specifically examine the ability of Wellington to make this transition under the current regulatory environment as phase two of the Wellington Case Study project.
Security fencing protecting building work around the James Hight Library.
Demolition work being carried out on the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
A photograph of demolition work in progress near Poplar Lane.
Demolition work being carried out on the Crowne Plaza Hotel.
A photograph of workers at work near the Ferrymead Bridge.