! ! ! ! ! Water Ways: Becoming an itinerant boat-dweller on the canals and rivers of South East England.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ! by ! Benjamin Oliver Leonard Bowles! ! ! ! ! ! ! Division of Anthropology! College of Business, Arts and Social Science! Brunel University! ! ! ! June 2015! ! ! ! ! ! "1 ! Abstract: This thesis draws from data collected over thirteen months of fieldwork working with “Boaters”, a boat-dwelling itinerant group on the waterways of Southern England. In the first of three parts, the thesis focusses on the individual motivations (economic, per- sonal and political) behind becoming a travelling Boater, and on how one acquires the requisite skills and knowledge to become part of a community of practice on the water- ways. Boaters on the whole do not have a sense of being an ethnically distinct group and, as such, this thesis interrogates what kind of an identity is being created or reinforced when individuals recognise themselves as Boaters. This part further deals with the specific temporal experience of boating (commonly known as “boat time”) that creates a shared experiential pattern between Boaters, and also examines the informal networks of trade, exchange and barter which enmesh Boaters in a web of reciprocal relationships. In the subsequent part, the focus of the thesis widens to take in the boating “community” as it is imagined. It asks how the concept of community is rhetorically constructed and corporately enacted on the inland waterways and identifies the creation of an emic and local concep- tion of community. In the third part, the focus widens further still in order to interrogate the troubled relationships between Boaters and sedentary populations and between Boaters and agents of the State. By looking at Boaters’ different (essentially nomadic) understand- ings of locality and political organisation, this thesis attempts to more broadly explain the fraught relationship between state agencies and itinerant populations. The thesis con- cludes that the community of Boaters is constructed through the shared understandings which emerge due to the Boaters experiencing much of their world as being flexible, fluid and unfixed. Boaters are bound by acts of dwelling together on the waterways, acts that emerge from the specific material conditions of boat life, and further from acts of support where Boaters bind together for the security of the group against antagonistic outsiders and the interventions of agencies of the state. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "2 Contents ! ! 1. Acknowledgments (page 4)! 2. Glossary and Acronyms (page 5)! 3. List of Figures (page 14)! 4. Dedication (page 16)! 5. Chapter 1: Introduction and Literature Review (page 17)! 6. Chapter 2: Methodology and Ethics (page 53) ! 7. Chapter 3: The Waterways: a Historical and Legal Framework (page 67)! 8. Chapter 4: Becoming a Boater: Developing Skills Within a Community of Practice ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????(page 91) ! 9. Chapter 5: Dwelling, Temporality and the Environment (page 116)! 10. Chapter 6: Economic, Livelihood and Consumption (page 140)! 11. Chapter 7: Community (page 166) ! 12. Sub-chapter Summarising Part 1 of the thesis and bridging to Part 2 (page 189)! 13. Chapter 8: “A very English kind of Anarchism”: Boaters as Citizens Within the State (page 199)! 14. Chapter 9: Surveillance (page 225)! 15. Chapter 10: Security (page 243)! 16. Chapter 11: Political (Dis)Organisation (page 263) ! 17. Chapter 12: Conclusion (page 282) ! 18. Bibliography (page 302)! 19. Appendix I: A Note Concerning Other Boats (page 316) ! 20. Appendix II: Jerry Clinton’s Post (page 318)! 21. Appendix III: A Note Concerning Other Work Practices (page 319) ! 22. Appendix IV: CaRT’s Guidance for Boaters Without A Home Mooring$ (page 321) ! 23. Appendix V: Untethered (page 323) ! 24. Appendix VI: CaRT’s Terms and Conditions (Including Important Changes) ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????? (page 325)$ ! ! "3 Acknowledgments! " First I must acknowledge those parts of the following thesis which I have presented else- where. Chapter 5 contains sections which have also appeared as two papers; “London Boaters: The narrowboat, the new traveler and the rhetorical creation of “nature” which I presented at the ASA Conference (Edinburgh University) in June 2014 and “"Time is like a soup": 'Boat Time' and the temporal experience of London's liveaboard Boaters” which I presented at the ASA Conference (Exeter University) in April 2015. I presented an early draft of Chapter 11 entitled ““The thread is intentionally amorphous”: Political (Dis)Organi- sation” at the RAI Research In Progress Seminar series, at the Royal Anthropological In- stitute, in January 2015. Chapter 10 is similar to a paper which I published in the journal Student Anthropologist in a paper entitled “Dangerous Waters: Security threats and their role in community formation among itinerant boat-dwellers on the waterways of southern England” (Bowles, 2014). My thanks to the organisers of these conferences and to the !journal editors for giving me the opportunity to share and to develop my work. ! In rough chronological order, I must thank Dr. Gavin Weston who supervised my under- graduate dissertation (also concerning the Boaters) when I was a student at Durham Uni- versity. His advice and support was invaluable throughout, and his suggestion that my project could be a foundation for PhD-level work at that time led directly to my application for PhD funding. I must also thank my post-graduate student colleagues at Brunel Univer- sity for their honest advice, their invariably perceptive feedback, and their great company. Of particular note are Eva Luksaite, Federica Guglielmo and Nicole Hoellerer, all of whom, at various times, helped me to achieve breakthroughs in analysing my ethnographic mater- ial that I could not have achieved without being part of so supportive a community. Also from Brunel University, I would like to thank all of the Department of Anthropology for their support, advice, and their unfailingly good suggestions. Most of all, I acknowledge the support and guidance of Dr. Eric Hirsch, my second supervisor, and Dr. Peggy Froerer, my supervisor, without whose hard work, deadlines, and unflinching dedication to English !grammar I would not have been able to move beyond my nest of field notes. ! Most importantly, thank you to the Brunel School of Social Sciences for deeming me wor- thy of three years of full funding. Thank you also to Dr. Jonathan Skinner from Roehamp- ton University for offering me employment after this funding elapsed and for being a good supportive friend over this academic year. Thank you to the Royal Anthropological Institute for deeming me worthy of the Sutasoma Grant in this final writing-up year. I acknowledge and appreciate your support. Also thank you to the Gemma Aellah and the Early Career Research Group at the RAI for offering me the opportunity to work with you over this past year and to present my work in so lovely and esteemed a venue. ! ! In the world of the waterways, I must thank the Boaters and academics Dr. Holly-Gale Mil- lette, Kate Saffin, Azzurra Muzzonigro, and Lee Willshire, all of whom were knowledgable, enlightening, and unfailingly kind to an ignorant new Boater. I wish them all luck with their own writing concerning the Boaters. Thank you also the following Boaters: Tash, Jo, Dan, Tom, Nick, Marcus, Steve, Liz, Gopal, Danny, Justin, Taz, Andrew, James, Pogue, Tom, Gregory and Tony. But thank you to any Boater who granted me an interview, five minutes on the towpath, or even just your blessing for my being there, poking around and generally !getting in the way.! Finally, I acknowledge the support of all my friends and family (the most important of whom know exactly who they are) for their critical reading and their uncritical friendship.! "4 !Glossary and Acronyms ! ACC!! The Association of Continuous Cruisers: a membership group for Boaters.! Bank!! The sides of the channel. ! Bargee Traveller!! An ethnic category comprised of itinerant boat dwellers. Some argue that the Boaters should adopt this category. ! Barges (also Dutch barges)! Boats wider and usually longer than narrowboats, often originally commercial boats. Some originating in the Netherlands and with a distinctive curved shape are known as Dutch Barges. ! BCN!! The Birmingham Canal Navigations. The mass of canals around the city of Birmingham in the West Midlands.! Bilge! ! The area underneath the flooring level of the boat where waste water can collect.! Bilge talk! Informal term in the town of Reading area for discussing technical boat matters.! Boat Warden!! Boat residents given a mooring spot in return for for managing a particular mooring, includ- ing moving overstaying boats on to new areas. ! Boaters! The itinerant boat-dwellers who are the subject of this study.! Bow (also “front”; (inf.) “the pointy end”) ! The front end of the boat.! Bow Back Waters! Waterways in the “Bow” area of East London. Closed before the Olympic Games of 2012 and then not subsequently reopened. ! British Waterways Act(s) of 1983 and 1995! Important acts of parliament relating to the management of the waterways. ! BTC! British Transport Commission. The organisation tasked with the management of the major- ity of the waterways between 1947 and 1962.! "5 Butty! A boat without an engine. Traditionally one of a “working pair;” the other being a motor boat. ! BW! British Waterways: the organisational successor of the BTC. Managed a majority of the waterways between 1962 and 2012. A quango or quasi non-governmental agency. ! BWB! British Waterways Board: the successor of the BTC. Was commonly known as and oper- ated as BW.! CaRT! Canal and River Trust: the organisation which took over the management of the majority of the waterways from BW in 2012. A charitable trust. ! Chandlery! A shop selling items useful for boating. ! Channel! The section of the waterway on which the boat is navigating, e.i., “move to the centre of the channel” would be an instruction to move the boat into the middle of the river or canal.