We Sing For Change - Straight Edge Punk and Social Change

The research presented within this paper is based on field work which took place in San Francisco and the Bay Area in 2009, throughout the UK in 2010, and in Chicago in 2011. It also draws on the experiences and insights of the researcher, a long time adherent to a subculture within the punk scene known as Straight Edge. The interviewees, informants and participants for this study ranged in age from 25 to 58. In total 83 interviews and extended conversations were carried out: 29 in San Francisco and the Bay Area, 7 in Chicago, and 47 in the UK (specifically, in Glasgow, Durham, Newcastle, Dundee, Edinburgh, Belfast, Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester).