Fight back examines the different ways punk - as a youth/subculture - may provide space for political expression and action. Bringing together scholars from a range of academic disciplines (history, sociology, cultural studies, politics, English, music), it showcases innovative research into the diverse ways in which punk may be used and interpreted.

The essays are concerned with three main themes: identity, locality and communication. These, in turn, cover subjects relating to questions of class, age and gender; the relationship between punk, locality and socio-political context; and the ways in which punk's meaning has been expressed from within the subculture and reflected by the media. Jon Savage, the foremost commentator and curator of punk's cultural legacy, provides an afterword on punk's impact and dissemination from the 1970s to the present day.

Reviews

''we've been shit on far too long, there are no equalities, no freedom, fight the system,
fight back'. One of the great virtues of this book is that it rekindles this righteous ire.'
Richard Osborne

Introduction: From protest to resistance - Matthew Worley, Jon Garland, Keith Gildart, Anna Gough-Yates, Paul Hodkinson, Sian Lincoln, Bill Osgerby, Lucy Robinson, John Street, Peter Webb
PART I: I wanna be me: punk and identity
1. 'If you want to live, make sure you can fight': Fighting masculinity on the Russian punk scene - Hilary Pilkington
2. 'Oi! Oi! Oi!: Class, locality and British punk - Matthew Worley
3. Playing a-minor in the punk scene?: Exploring the articulation of identity by older women punks - Laura Way
4. Immigrant punk: The struggle for post-modern authenticity - Ivan Gololobov
5. Crass, subculture and class: The milieu culture of DIY punk - Peter Webb
PART II: Transmission: Punk and place
6. 'Flowers of Evil': Ecosystem health and the punk poetry of John Cooper-Clarke - John Parham
7. Distortions in distance: Debates over cultural conventions in French punk - Jonathyne Briggs
8. Lo spirito continua: Torino and the Collettivo Punx Anarchici Giacomo Bottà
9. Shared enemies, shared friends: The relational character of subcultural ideology in the case of Czech punks and skinheads - Hedvika Novotná and Martin Hermanský
10. Ostpunx: East German punk in its social, political and historical context - Aimar Ventsel
PART III: When the punks go marching in: Punk, communication and production
11. Silver screen sedition: Auteurship and exploitation in the history of punk cinema - Bill Osgerby
12. 'Punk belongs to the punx, not business men!': British DIY punk as a form of cultural resistance - Michelle Liptrot
13. Normality kills: Discourses of normality and denormalisation in German punk lyrics - Melani Schröter
14. 'Militant entertainment'?: 'Crisis music' and political ephemera in the emergent 'structure of feeling', 1976-83 - Herbert Pimlott
15. Punk 'zines: 'Symbols of defiance' from the print to the digital age - Matt Grimes and Tim Wall
Afterword: The cultural impact of punk: an interview with Jon Savage - Matthew Worley
Index

Editor

The Subcultures Network is the interdisciplinary network for the study of subcultures, popular music and social change, hosted by the University of Reading