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Abstract

Drawing on an ethnography study, this article addresses young people’s contemporary politics in outer East London. Through an exploration of online music videos and one girl’s story, it engages with, and questions, prevailing academic discourses on the decline of youth politics. Foregrounding a conjunctural methodology, it discusses how young people’s political performances do indeed conform to the neoliberal matrix. However, beyond this, it also explores their struggles against neoliberal marginalisation and the possibility of radical politics beyond these constraints. The overall argument of this article is to understand how young people’s politics are simultaneously conformist, agonist and possibly radical in contemporary outer East London.

Keywords

Culture East London neoliberalism politics urban youth

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Negative politics: The conformity,struggles and radical possibilities of youth culture in outer East London

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Keywords

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