Restoring the Jersey Shore after Sandy: Art and Asserting Community

• In Event: 545 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtable Session.
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 20. Production of Culture II

Abstract

Sociologists have long been interested in community, both in terms of geographic space and the common lifestyles, beliefs, work, goals, or institutions that bring groups together. Visual symbols are part of this common fabric, for they reference shared experiences and memories and have common interpretations that act as markers of belonging to a group or community. We turn to visual sociology coupled with ethnographic and interview data to study public art and those who created and displayed it on the Jersey Shore in the first ten months after Hurricane Sandy. We focus on images related to Sandy in order to understand how artists depicted community identity. Based on analysis of 65 images alongside data from ten interviews and ethnographic observations, we argue that the public art emphasized collective identity and interpretation of Sandy and its effects. Rather than seeking to establish a new cultural identity, artists and others involved in the creation and display of public art images sought to re-assert Jersey shore identity, and through this, to “restore the shore” as a vibrant and resilient community.

Authors

• Elizabeth Borland, College of New Jersey

• Jessica Scardino, College of New Jersey