[Dancecult-l] Culture and Religion: special ed on EDMC

[Adam Walker]

Wow....this looks great Graham....do you have any idea when this issue will 
be out?  More specifically, do you have any idea when it will be made 
available online?  As of today this issue is not available.

Cheers
ads


>From: Graham St John <g.stjohn at city.ac.uk>
>To: Dancecult-l at listcultures.org
>Subject: [Dancecult-l] Culture and Religion: special ed on EDMC
>Date: Wed, 3 May 2006 00:58:29 +0100
>
>
>Just out. The special edition of Culture and Religion on EDMC. Heres the 
>contents with abstracts.
>
>
>
>Culture and Religion 7(1) 2006 (special edition - Electronic Dance Music 
>Culture and Religion, edited by Graham St John)
>
>Electronic Dance Music Culture and Religion: An Overview
>Graham St John
>
>Abstract The following provides a comprehensive and critical overview of 
>existing research that investigates the religio-spiritual dimensions of 
>electronic dance music culture (from disco, through house to post-rave 
>forms). Studies of the culture and religion of EDMC are explored under four 
>broad groupings: the cultural religion of EDMC expressed through 'ritual' 
>and 'festal'; subjectivity, corporeality and the phenomenological dance 
>experience (especially 'ecstasy' and 'trance'); the dance community and a 
>sense of belonging (the 'vibe' and 'tribes'); and EDMC as a new 
>'spirituality of life'. Moving beyond the cultural Marxist approaches of 
>the 1970s which held youth (sub)cultural expressions as 'ineffectual' and 
>'tragic', and the postmodernist approaches of the early 1990s which held 
>rave to be an 'implosion of meaning', recent anthropological and 
>sociological approaches recognise that the various manifestations of this 
>youth cultural phenomenon possess meaning, purpose and significance for 
>participants. Contemporary scholarship thus conveys the presence of 
>religiosity and spirituality within contemporary popular cultural 
>formations. In conclusion, I suggest that this and continuing scholarship 
>can offer useful counterpoint to at least one recent account (of clubbing) 
>which overlooks the significance of EDMC through a restricted and 
>prejudiced apprehension of 'religion'.
>
>
>The Mainstream Post-rave Club Scene as Secondary Institution: A British 
>Perspective
>Gordon Lynch and Emily Badger
>
>Abstract The article focuses on the importance of analysing the mainstream 
>post-rave dance scene in the context of studies of the religious 
>significance of electronic dance cultures. Drawing on their own 
>ethnographic research, as well as other recent comparable studies in 
>Britain, the authors argue that the mainstream post-rave dance scene is a 
>'secondary institution' supporting the new social form of religion 
>identified by Luckmann (1967), which emphasises self-realization and 
>self-expression. The study serves as an invitation to re-consider the 
>definition of 'religion' in relation to electronic dance cultures and 
>points to the role of mainstream leisure industries in supporting 
>contemporary secular worldviews.
>
>
>The Spiritual and the Revolutionary: Alternative Spirituality, British Free 
>Festivals, and the Emergence of Rave Culture
>Christopher Partridge
>
>Abstract This article examines the sacralization of festival and rave 
>culture.  Beginning with an exploration of the British free festival as a 
>site of countercultural ideology and alternative spirituality, it traces 
>the spiritual and ideological lines of continuity between the free 
>festivals that took place with increasing frequency in Britain throughout 
>the 1970s and into the 1980s and the rave culture of the 1980s and 1990s.
>
>
>The Spiritual Economy of Nightclubs and Raves: Osho Sannyasins as Party 
>Promoters in Ibiza and Pune/Goa.
>Anthony D'Andrea
>
>Abstract Interrogating the fusion of 'religion' and 'leisure' in 
>contemporary societies, this article analyses how adepts of a 
>countercultural religiosity (Osho sannyasins) have influenced the club and 
>rave scenes in Ibiza ('clubbing capital of the world'), Pune and Goa 
>(global centers of self-spirituality and digital dance). As 'rave studies' 
>has concentrated on the experiential dimension of raving, this article 
>focuses instead on the socio-economic components of a 'nomadic 
>spirituality' that underlies multiple forms of digital dance culture 
>throughout the world. It compares four cases of dance parties (exotic, 
>up-market, underground, and resort), all of which are promoted and attended 
>by Osho sannyasins both in Ibiza and India. Such nomadic spirituality is 
>evinced by the conjunction of transpersonal experiences, spatial 
>displacements and expatriate identities found among ravers and sannyasins. 
>The article concludes that the commodification of alternative lifestyles by 
>tourism, entertainment and real-estate industries indexes not only the 
>ambivalent desires of mainstream societies toward utopian lifestyles; it 
>also suggests that transnational countercultures constitute a privileged 
>analytical site that anticipates emerging social trends and predicaments of 
>complex globalisation.
>
>
>Churched Ibiza: Christianity and Club Culture
>Stella Sai-Chun Lau
>
>Abstract This article investigates the relationship between Christianity 
>and club culture based on a case study of a Christian mission, 24-7 
>Mission, conducted on Ibiza, known as 'the Mecca of house music and club 
>culture' (in the summer of 2003. Drawing on field research undertaken on 
>Ibiza, this article discusses how a Christian youth group engages with club 
>culture. Adopting an ethnographic approach allowing 'a microsociological' 
>focus it interrogates the issues of 'spirituality' and 'community' in 
>electronic dance music culture. My analysis is concentrated on members of 
>the 24-7 mission team and the ways in which spirituality, community and 
>dance music are discussed, leading to arguments about how members appraise 
>and use popular music within their 'ministry'.
>
>
>The Nine O'Clock Service: Mixing Club Culture and Postmodern Christianity
>Rupert Till
>
>Abstract This article investigates the interaction between popular culture 
>and religion. It describes how club (or rave) culture presents itself as 
>oppositional to mainstream culture and how it integrates elements of 
>religion and spirituality. Addressing the adoption of club cultural 
>elements within the Christian church, it then explores in detail the work 
>of the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), an Episcopal church in Sheffield, 
>England. It describes NOS events (with particular attention to the use of 
>multimedia arts) and discusses the development and growth of the 
>alternative worship movement. It demonstrates how NOS adopted an actively 
>postmodern agenda and pioneered the appropriation of culturally relevant 
>music and arts from popular culture, commenting on the challenges this 
>presents to the Christian church.


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