Portland, Oregon in Transition: Cultural practices in a trending city

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Culture and Place Identity

Abstract

Derived from an ethnographic research project of urban culture and social change in Portland, Oregon, this article examines the role of an extended spatial archipelago of productive and consumptive spaces in countering a commodified urban imaginary. Many scholars have focused on the bohemian concentrations that have led to gentrification and others have highlighted the contingent labor for the cultural industry that underemployed artists and musicians provide. The situational adaptations of Portlanders within the music community are constituent of the ethos or frontier authenticity that brings insider status to those who work and produce with a reverence for the city. As the city develops and usurps spaces for cultural production, artisanal workers and music makers work to use their established retrenchment in the city to fend off these processes within neighborhoods of the city.

Author

• Jeffrey R London, City University of New York-Hunter College