The Catford Riddim on the 202

This presentation is about a song, ”Catford Riddim” by the A-Team, a group of grime artists from South London, specifically about how it came to be played, perhaps a bit too loudly, in the back of the 202 bus one January morning on a teenager’s mobile phone. As an illustration of how social networks and technological networks converge, the ”Catford Riddim,” insisting on the music’s own provenance from the SE6 postcode, shows the formation of a local ethnoscape in the global networks of peer-to-peer file sharing and online DIY distribution sites such as MySpace. Contesting the narrative of online social networks as routes to fame, I suggest that on the contrary they illustrate the emergence of local, even insular, ”scenes” of musicians, events and audiences.

Safe spaces and sense of identity: views and experiences of lesbian, gay and bisexual young people

Empirical data on the life experiences of contemporary school-age lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) young people in Britain remains somewhat sparse. This paper reports the preliminary findings of a study conducted at a recently-initiated LGB youth Summer School. To further an appreciation of issues of concern to today's LGB teenagers, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 Summer School participants (five female and five male, aged 15-18 years). The aim was to elicit their views and experiences relating to their need for support such as that offered by the Summer School. Themes drawn from participants' interviews are presented. Key issues included: being positioned as different by their majority heterosexual peers; feelings of isolation and loneliness in their peer groups and families; difficulties in finding others like themselves for companionship; and the importance of meeting more LGB people of their own age.