Dr Kirsty Lohman

This research was the basis of my PhD project, an in-depth, ethnographic study of the Dutch punk scene for which I spent a total of 7 months living in The Netherlands in 2010-2011. This was a crucial time for the punk scene - as well as wider subcultural spheres - as squatting was criminalised in October 2010.

My work questions the artificial boundaries of subcultural research, calling for a critical analysis of the distinctions drawn between subcultural and everyday lives, and between localised and globalised subcultures. I frame the everyday experiences of punks within the mobile and connected global subculture of which they are part and argue for an approach to social research that recognises the ‘messiness’ and the ‘connectedness’ of the social world.

This research project was socio-historical, drawing on historical as well as contemporary data. It traced the emergence of punk in The Netherlands in the 1970s and its development through to 2011. Some outputs (Lohman, 2018; Lohman and Worley, 2018) are more historical in nature, others sociological (Lohman, 2013; Lohman, 2019). My book connects these two disciplines (Lohman, 2017) with chapters that: map Dutch punk historically and spatially; explore the meanings and practices attached to punk by its participants; and focus on political punk praxis.

publications

‘Nothing Like the Rest of Holland: The Groningen Punk Scene’ (2019)
by Kirsty Lohman
in Mike Dines, Alastair Gordon, Paula Guerra and Russ Bestley (editors)
The Global Punk Reader: From the Local to the Global
Bristol: Intellect
Book / Open access chapter

‘Bloody revolutions, fascist dreams, anarchy and peace: Crass, Rondos and the politics of punk, 1977–84’ (2018)
by Kirsty Lohman and Matthew Worley
Britain and the World: Historical Journal of the British Scholar Society, 11(1): 51-74
Journal article / Open access version

‘Punks Against Censorship: Negotiating Acceptable Politics in Dutch Fanzine Raket’ (2018)
by Kirsty Lohman
in Subcultures Network (editors)
Ripped, Torn and Cut: Pop, Politics and Punk Fanzines from 1976
Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 264-280
Book / Open access chapter

The Connected Lives of Dutch Punks: Contesting Subcultural Boundaries (2017)
by Kirsty Lohman
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
Book / Free open access chapter

‘Dutch Punk with Eastern Connections: Mapping cultural flows between East and West Europe’ (2013)
by Kirsty Lohman
Punk and Post-Punk, 2(2): 147-163
Journal article / Open access version

selected conference papers (full list here)

‘ANOK4U2? Crass, Rondos and the Politics of Punk, 1977–84’
Keep It Simple, Make It Fast!, University of Porto, Portugal
July 2018, with Professor Matthew Worley

‘Dutch Punks on Tour: Connecting Communities through Subcultural Flows’
Keynote lecture
Doctoral College Conference, University of Surrey
July 2017

‘‘Anarchy in the UK’ to ‘Dutch Disease’: Punk from Britain to The Netherlands’
Britain and the World Conference, King’s College London
June 2016

‘Punks’ Politics: Educative practices in subcultural circles’
BSA Annual Conference, Aston University, Birmingham
April 2016

‘Nothing Like the Rest of Holland: The Groningen Punk Scene’
Punk Scholars Network, 2nd Annual Postgraduate Conference, Birmingham City University
October 2015

‘‘After doing this for so many years you want your comfort a bit’: Squatting and negotiating authenticity as an ageing punk’
BSA Annual Conference, University of Leeds
April 2014

‘Narratives of Eastern Europe in the Netherlands’ Punk Scene’
IASPM-UK Annual conference, University of Salford
September 2012

This project was made possible through a Doctoral Studentship from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, attached to the project ‘Post-Socialist Punk: Beyond the Double Irony of Self-abasement’ led by Professor Hilary Pilkington.