Barboza Muniz, Bruno
(2015)
An affective and embodied push to Bourdieu’s dispositional model: Funk’s cultural practices in Rio de Janeiro.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
Baile funk is a music scene historically associated with blackness and impoverished areas of Rio de Janeiro. This music has been gaining in visibility over the last three decades. Nevertheless, stigmatization and official repression co-exist with its popularity. Funk’s pervasiveness, even among the upper classes, does not seem to eradicate prejudice against producers and fans. This thesis investigates struggles for equal rights and full citizenship using funk by looking at the mediation and appropriation of funk music by the government, journalists, activist groups and funk creators themselves. This investigation refers to interviews, documents, videos and photographs. Hence, the methodology employed relies on a combination of ethnographic methods, including visual ethnography, and the analysis of semi-structured interviews.
Sociologists have associated popular culture with a lack of legitimacy and autonomy, opposing it to pure art and its disinterested approach to worldly life. Indeed, the creation of baile funk music is not a disinterested activity. While funk producers may have commercial interests, they do, nevertheless, also get involved in political matters and local community issues, dealing with structural constraints through their bodies, political activism and affective labour. Lastly, those creating funk demand the freedom to create, the possibility of occupying different spaces of the city and recognition as aesthetic agents.
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