ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the internal machinations of HONK! bands as a way to understand how the musical instantiation of the right to the city operates. It aims to explain the ways in which the political and social priorities of these bands articulate within the groups themselves, and how their organizational processes reflect their ideological commitments to a new type of social interaction, and by extension, cities. The chapter argues that the commitment to democracy and shared leadership that many of the bands have – contested, imperfect, and necessarily incomplete as it may be – is a broader expression of prefiguration, and deeply bound to an inclusive political vision. The general challenge is how to extend the benefits and participation in the band as fully as possible to everyone within it. HONK! bands’ internal functioning tells us something important about the ways that the right to the city operates.
