This insightful investigation of busking culture confronts relevant truths about power relations, policy, and inequality in contemporary cities across the globe.
What happens when precarious urban cultural laborers take data collection, laws, and policymaking into their own hands? Buskers have been part of our cities for hundreds of years, but they remain invisible to governments and in datasets. From nuisance to public art, this cultural practice can help us understand the politics of data collection, archives, regulatory frameworks, and urban planning. Busking also responds to underlying questions on the boundaries of the rights to the city, and who has a voice in shaping how our cities are planned and governed.
A transnational exploration of street performance, Urban Music Governance examines the intricate limits of legality, data visibility, and resistance from the perspective of those working at the social and regulatory margins of society. Based on a decade of fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro and Montreal, this book offers a lively account of why such an often-overlooked practice matters today.
By investigating the role of busking in contemporary society, Urban Music Governance presents an original interdisciplinary study that exposes how power dynamics in policymaking decide issues of access—and exclusion—around us, above and below ground.
By:
Jess Reia (University of Virginia)
Imprint: Intellect Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 244mm,
Width: 170mm,
ISBN: 9781835950890
ISBN 10: 1835950892
Series: Urban Music Studies
Pages: 210
Publication Date: 08 May 2025
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword By Will Straw Acknowledgments Introduction: What does street performance teach us about cities? Part I | Numbers and norms More than numbers: Counting, categorizing and describing buskers across time Regulation: Engaging with (dis)order in everyday life Part II | Above ground and beyond regulation Legitimation: The blurred boundaries between policy and control Disputes: Busking as public service and law-making Part III | Going underground, being understood Disobedience: Lawbreakers and talented stars Postface - Pandemic, digitalisation and evidence-based policy Bibliography Index
Jess Reia is an Assistant Professor of Data Science at the University of Virginia, USA, working on data justice, technology policy, and urban governance.
