‘Who is really gonna benefit?’: The punk habitus in the downtown Edmonton field

Abstract

The new home of the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Edmonton Oilers opened in 2016. This publicly financed, CAD 613.7 million arena was built in downtown Edmonton, Alberta. The arena and its broader entertainment district were designed to ‘revitalize’ Edmonton’s inner city that was already home to the majority of the city’s homeless population. The spatial transformation of Edmonton’s inner city was an example of what geographer Neil Smith referred to as ‘The New Urban Frontier’. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, this article explores how the local music community reacted to downtown gentrification through songs by punk bands Latcho Drom, Rebuild/Repair and Audio/Rocketry, along with rapper Cadence Weapon. This article assesses a series of reactions ranging from supportive and promotional to critical and resistive. By showing how musicians engaged in the debate over development, this article creates a template for assessing processes of gentrification, through the relationship between professional sport, media and music. It analyses the role of cultural production in the continued process of gentrification, future developments in cities and who belongs in the new urban landscape. In doing so, this article suggests the embodiment of a punk habitus by agents negotiating various fields in Edmonton and beyond.