'Not just holidays in the sun': Understanding DIY cultures in the global south

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the 'do-it-yourself' (DIY) representations of participants in the Portuguese and Brazilian underground artistic and music scenes. Through comparison, we identify the emergence of a (re)meaning of DIY relocated in the Global South, considering the socio-historical contexts of both countries. Our approach has three focal points: (1) the importance of DIY manifestations in both countries in the development of youth (sub)cultures, including forms of production and consumption of music, fashion, aesthetics, causes; (2) the singularity of DIY punk manifestations in Portugal and Brazil, together with the related resistance/commodification practices and their correlation with social, political and economic development outside the Anglo-American context; and (3) the embedding of a DIY ethos and the associated claim to authenticity in the careers in which these social actors engage in their transition to adulthood.