Conclusion

This book started with the aim of understanding something that does not want to be understood; a cultural phenomenon based on the negation of its own signifi cance, value and meaning. Our research did not set out to disprove Rimbaud’s thesis that punk ‘isn’t’. On the contrary, we interpreted his words as a call – or, more accurately, a provocation – to envisage our object of study not as a ‘thing’ (be it music, style, aesthetics or politics) but as a series of practices that allow routine and refl exive transitions between punk’s presence and absence. Punk ‘isn’t’, we concur, in the sense that it cannot be identifi ed as a discrete cultural form contained within stylistic boundaries or social groupings. But, by shifting our gaze from the question of form to that of substance , we have found that punk continues to be experienced and enacted as a diverse range of cultural practices . In this sense, we argue, punk most defi nitely ‘is’.