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Just Entertainment? Popular Culture and Political Engagement

  • Professor John Street, University of East Anglia
  • 27 February 2014, 4.00-6.00pm, W/222
  • Chair: Peter Hollingsworth

Interview with Professor John Street

Seminar recording

Seminar synopsis

Where once popular culture was dismissed as 'mere entertainment', it is now regarded as having important consequences for political thought and action. Whether debating Russell Brand's Newsnight interview or Pussy Riot's punk politics, the assumption is that these interventions in some way matter to political engagement. This paper looks at the history and impact of popular culture's relationship to politics, and asks what we actually know about the link. It draws on recent ESRC research into young people's use of popular culture and into 'celebrity politics'.

Professor John Street

John Street is a professor of politics at the University of East Anglia. He has written extensively about the relationship between politics and popular culture. His most recent books are (with Sanna Inthorn and Martin Scott) From Entertainment to Citizenship: Politics and Popular Culture (Manchester University Press, 2013) and Music and Politics (Polity, 2012). His current research is on the politics of punk, the relationship of copyright to creativity and the cultural value of music.