Urban Graffiti

Abstract

Recently, a new style of youthful graffiti has emerged in cities throughout the United States and beyond. Based on 4 years of fieldwork inside the Denver, Colorado graffiti underground, and on field and document research in other U.S. and European cities, this article explores the many ways in which those who produce this graffiti resist the increasing segregation and control of urban environments and shows how participants in the graffiti underground undermine the efforts of legal and political authorities to control them. Finally, it documents the ways in which this collective production of graffiti not only confronts and resists existing arrangements but constructs alternative social, cultural, and economic arrangements as well.