Social Media, Cultural Activism and Place-making in Contemporary Lucknow

Abstract

The growing presence of the virtual world has made inroads into new ways of citizen cultural activism that call for an exploration and re-imagining of the idea of place and place-making in contemporary networked societies, cities in particular. This article is based on an analysis of such activism in contemporary Lucknow around its distinct cultural forms such as cuisine, heritage architecture, dance, music and literature actively deploying social media. It argues that social media has bolstered new and existing citizen cultural activism and facilitates place-making by connecting citizens to the city’s cultural specificities. Together with the aggressive use of social media as part of local government strategies for citizen engagement made mandatory under the Heritage Arc and the Smart Cities Plan (SCP) launched in 2014 and 2015, respectively, place-making processes revolve around hosting festivals, street plays, crafts and arts exhibitions, book launches, discussions, film screenings, heritage walks, writers meets and marathons. Resultantly, the idea of place as having shared meanings and sentimental value is resurrected in the face of the homogenising tendencies of cultural globalisation.