Skip to main content

Street Art

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible

Abstract

The interest in street art has long involved a wide range of urban visual expressions such as murals, graffiti, tagging, and even urban defacement. These diverse aesthetic forms of expression have therefore attracted numerous theoretical and methodological approaches. Some analyze it from the standpoint of street art as an illegal act of vandalism, some as a political act of resistance, and some as a form of art and a new cultural capital. From a sociocultural psychology perspective, street art could be analyzed as a social act that intervenes in the urban space, thus opening up possibilities for individuals to shape their environment, and in turn having that new environment with its new affordances shape individuals back.

This entry will discuss different conceptualizations of street art, especially looking at how the definition of street art has developed over time. Then it will outline some of the methodological approaches to analyzing street art within visual culture. The entry focuses in particular on political messages of street art rather than their artistic forms, and the possibilities those messages could open up in visual culture and public discourse.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Agustin, O. G. (2017). The aesthetics of social movements in Spain. In S. H. Awad & B. Wagoner (Eds.), Street art of resistance (pp. 325–348). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Avramidis, K., & Tsilimpounidi, M. (2017). Graffiti and street art: Reading, writing and representing the city (pp. 1–24). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Awad, S. H. (2020). The social life of images. Visual Studies., 35(1), 28–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/1472586X.2020.1726206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Awad, S. H., & Wagoner, B. (2017). Street art of resistance (pp. 1–16). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Awad, S. H., & Wagoner, B. (2018). Image politics of the Arab uprisings. In B. Wagoner, F. Moghaddam, & J. Valsiner (Eds.), The psychology of radical social change: From rage to revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blanché, U. (2015). Street art and related terms – Discussion and working definition. Street Art and Urban Creativity Journal, 1(1), 32–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doerr, N., Mattoni, A., & Teune, S. (2013). Advances in the visual analysis of social movements. Bingley: Emerald.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Donald, M. (1991). Origins of the modern mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glăveanu, V. P. (2020). Affordance. In: Glăveanu V. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_10-2

  • Gottlieb, L. (2008). Graffiti art styles: A classification system and theoretical analysis. Jefferson: McFarland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, S., & Flynn, D. (2015). Longitudinal photo-documentation: Recording living walls. Street Art & Urban Creativity Journal, 1(1), 26–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khatib, L. (2013). Image politics in the Middle East: The role of the visual in political struggle. New York: I. B. Tauris.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, H. (1974/1991). The production of space. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewisohn, C. (2008). Street Art. New York: Abrams.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranciere, J. (2004). The politics of aesthetics: The distribution of the sensible (trans. Rockhill, G). New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinecke, J. (2007). Post-graffiti: Between street, art and commerce. Berkeley: Gingko Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross, J. I., Bengtsen, P., Lennon, J. F., Phillips, S., & Wilson, J. Z. (2017). In search of academic legitimacy: The current state of scholarship on graffiti and street art. The Social Science Journal, 54, 411–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. C. (1990). Domination and the arts of resistance: Hidden transcripts. London: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stampoulidis, G. (2019). Stories of resistance in Greek street art: A cognitive-semiotic approach. The Public Journal of Semiotics, 8(2), 29–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stevenson, D. (2013). The city. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vimercati, G. (2016, March 17). Blu v Bologna: New shades of grey in the street art debate. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/17/street-artist-blu-destroys-murals-in-bologna

  • WacÅ‚awek, A. (2011). Graffiti and street art. New York: Thames & Hudson Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waldner, L. K., & Dobratz, B. A. (2013). Graffiti as a form of contentious political participation. Sociology Compass, 7(5), 377–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah H. Awad .

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Awad, S.H. (2021). Street Art. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_154-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_154-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98390-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98390-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics