Hi everyone! Today we celebrate @JoyWhite2 's insightful & accessible book Terraformed: Young Black Lives in the Inner City, which shows how music & rap specifically are key to understanding how 'young Black lives are affected by the impact of racism, neoliberalism and austerity'

The text introduces a new theoretical framework- hyper-local demarcation- to help analyse the interaction between people, legislation, policy, built environment & the sonic landscape, and 'glimpse into the power relations that support inequalities and create exclusionary spaces'

One of the really interesting things about this framework is its inclusion of sonic landscapes, often underexamined in other sociological texts about the relationship between place, identity and power

In the chapter 'Why Music Matters' Dr White highlights how Grime/rap play a key role in the production of place 'as a setting...and as a setting for daily social interaction.' 'Music becomes a force that defines place' and fuses the local, national and global'.

She shows Grime/Rap music to be an important nodal point at which power is imposed but also resisted. Incorporating these soundscapes into our analysis of place (on a local, national, global level) allows us to better grasp how racism and neoliberalism manifest and are negotiated

Dr White shows the significance of Grime/rap in the shaping of society and personal identities, and the importance of developing theoretical frameworks that incorporate this music when engaging in sociological study

For more on this see Dr White in conversation with Hip Hop legend Kano

Find the book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622586/terraformed-by-joy-white/