Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Phd in the University of Hull
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THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL Hybrid climbing bodies: the climbing assemblage and the technologically mediated engagements and ascensions of rock climbers being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of PhD in the University of Hull by Paul Richard Barratt BA (Hons) September 2010 i Abstract This thesis contributes an Actor Network Theory inspired approach to the study of rock climbing to argue that climbers are more-than-human fusions comprised of the human and non-human. The research explores this notion of hybrid climbers, which I term the ‘hybrid climbing assemblage’. The complicated relationships between these human and technological co-agents of climbing are durable but dynamic, although technological developments aid climbers, the benefits of these fusions cannot be reduced to physical, technical and mental elements. Rather, each piece of technology worn or carried by the climber has its own situated set of relations which are interwoven into the complex socio-technical assemblage that co-constitutes the present day climber. Empirical data to support this study has been collected via participant observation, and interviews with 40 rock climbers based in northern England. Although some of these voices debate the roles of these technologies and their experiential impacts upon climbing, these developments are not necessarily damaging to the experience. Indeed, climbers are careful to retain the ‘desirable’ and ‘essential’ experiential aspects of the activity – notably the risk and uncertainty climbing entails. Finally, the thesis also adds to debates concerning the materially mediated experience of places, and how places are also involved in the development of socio-technical assemblages and their practices. In these ways this research aims to help us rethink our activities as implicitly mediated by technology. ii Acknowledgements Throughout this study I have received intellectual, practical and emotional support from an array of people, things and places... First, I would like to thank my partner Lynsey for putting up with PhD related moods and for being the sounding board for my many formulating Ideas. My three years of study saw the birth of Poppy, our first child. She has given me great pleasure as a welcome distraction whilst simultaneously providing me with the focus to continue my studies. I would also like to thank Penny our second child and the virtual actant whose absence but impending presence as a gestating foetus provided me with a diligent work ethic. Academically, I would like to thank my supervisory committee David Atkinson, Sally Eden, Lewis Holloway, and Russell Hitchings, all of whom have put up with my preoccupations with differing aspects of the study and helped steer the research to an adept and manageable conclusion. I would also like to thank Graham Haughton who encouraged and supported my decision to undertake postgraduate study. In relation to my fieldwork I would like to thank all of the climbers who have taken time out of their schedules to talk and climb with me, especially members from the Buxton Mountain Rescue Service, Leeds Mountaineering Club and also the Yorkshire Branch of the British Mountaineering Council, who allowed me sit in on their meetings and helped recruit a significant number of my sample. It is these people’s passion for climbing (and kit) that has driven this PhD forward and led me to what I feel is an interesting and thought provoking piece of work. Last, in line with the project’s theoretical approach I would like to thank my road bike in conjunction with the undulating roads of the East Yorkshire Wolds. These have kept me sane and healthy when the company of non-humans was preferable to all concerned! iii Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iii List of figures .............................................................................................................................. viii List of tables .................................................................................................................................. ix Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Research focus and context .......................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Questions ..................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Structure of the thesis .................................................................................................. 6 Chapter 2: Introducing hybrid climbing networks ........................................................................ 9 2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 The structure of the British climbing network .............................................................. 9 2.3 Climbing networks ...................................................................................................... 13 2.3.1 Climbing types ..................................................................................................... 14 2.3.2 A climber’s rack explained .................................................................................. 15 2.3.3 Situated hybrid climbing practices ...................................................................... 21 2.4 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 23 Chapter 3: The historical development of climbing and its technology ..................................... 25 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 25 3.2 Structure of the chapter ............................................................................................. 26 3.3 A brief prehistory of climbing ..................................................................................... 27 3.4 The golden age of Alpine climbing, the Alpine Club, and the development of modern day mountaineering ................................................................................................................ 31 3.5 Interwar mountaineering ............................................................................................ 34 3.6 The Birth of British Rock Climbing: the ‘Suburban Mountain Range’ ......................... 35 3.7 ‘Cragrats’: The Founding Fathers of a British Trad Ethic? ........................................... 40 3.8 The 1970s and onwards: A sporting revolution .......................................................... 45 3.9 Summary ..................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 4: A mediated world: theoretical frameworks for studying hybridity .......................... 54 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 54 4.2 The structure of the chapter ....................................................................................... 55 4.3 The nature-culture of mountains ................................................................................ 56 4.4 Actor Network Theory: Exploring the relations and agency of things ........................ 59 4.4.1 A critique of Actor Network theory .................................................................... 63 iv 4.5 Embodying the outdoors ............................................................................................ 67 4.5.1 The climbing body, modernity and rationalisation ............................................. 71 4.6 Materiality ................................................................................................................... 72 4.6.1 New materialist thinkers ..................................................................................... 75 4.6.2 Materialising the research agenda ..................................................................... 76 4.7 Cyborgs........................................................................................................................ 77 4.8 Geography and technology in a more than human world .......................................... 79 4.9 The spaces and places of climbing .............................................................................. 82 4.10 Perceiving the environment ........................................................................................ 83 4.11 Relations with nature .................................................................................................. 85 4.12 Bodies and technologies on the move ........................................................................ 87 4.13 Mediating the climb .................................................................................................... 89 4.14 Academic approaches to risk and risky pursuits in outdoor leisure ........................... 90 4.14.1 Motivations to climb: ‘flow experiences’ and ‘deep eco play’ ........................... 91 4.14.2 Theorising risky activities .................................................................................... 92 4.14.3 Technological