Deviance as Career Opportunity

An emerging art world: The de-subculturalization and artification process of graffiti and pixação in São Paulo

“…It is precisely this argument that Gregory Snyder (2009) makes in his study of New York graffiti-writers from the first decade of the millennium. Snyder (2016Snyder ( , 2018 stresses the same point that McRobbie (1997) had previously made, namely that in this subcultural context there is an 'entrepreneurial dynamic (that) has rarely been acknowledged' (Snyder, 2016: 210). Snyder (2018) believes, for this reason, that certain deviant subcultures offer career possibilities that are used by some individuals.…”

“…Snyder (2016Snyder ( , 2018 stresses the same point that McRobbie (1997) had previously made, namely that in this subcultural context there is an 'entrepreneurial dynamic (that) has rarely been acknowledged' (Snyder, 2016: 210). Snyder (2018) believes, for this reason, that certain deviant subcultures offer career possibilities that are used by some individuals. In this context, a set of skills acquired in informal (and illicit) contexts and lacking in validation by the institutions become assets for the development of some careers.…”

“…These processes have opened up a new field of opportunities for former and current members of these urban subcultures, since the skills acquired in informal contexts reveal themselves as assets that can be capitalized on in professionalized visual arts (public art, commercial decoration, graphic art, etc.). Some authors have highlighted precisely the entrepreneurship linked to certain types of subcultural milieus (McRobbie, 1997;Snyder, 2016Snyder, , 2018. We argue that in order to understand these processes is it useful to refer to the DIY career perspective that has been applied to other youth subcultures (Bennett, 2018;Haenfler, 2018;Threadgold, 2018).…”

Youth cultures and career pathways – a well-being perspective on sticker artists’ cultural and professional engagements in St. Petersburg

“…Sticker art is an interesting example of a "non-deviant" DIY culture with blurred borders that provide young artists with access to other communities such as graffiti or hip-hop and at the same time cultivates transferable skills that can be applied to diverse creative industries. To a certain extent, sticker art creates the same opportunities for adult careers as, for example, graffiti (Snyder, 2011(Snyder, , 2017, but is more accessible to young people with more diverse backgrounds -female practitioners or those who have no skills or courage to participate in more closed "elitist" communities of graffiti and street art.…”