A Travellers' Sense of Place in the City

A Travellers’ Sense of Place in the City Anthony Leroyd Howarth Wolfson College University of Cambridge August 2018 This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology. A Travellers’ Sense of Place in the City Anthony Howarth Abstract It is widely assumed in both popular and scholarly imaginaries that Travellers, due to their ‘nomadic mind-set’ and non-sedentary uses of land, do not have a sense of place. This thesis presents an ethnographic account of an extra-legal camp in Southeast London, to argue that its Traveller inhabitants do have a sense of place, which is founded in the camp’s environment and experientially significant sites throughout the city. The main suggestion is that the camp, its inhabitants, and their activities, along with significant parts of the city, are co-constitutionally involved in making a Travellers’ sense of place. However, this is not self- contained or produced by them alone, as their place-making activities are embroiled in the political, economic and legal environment of the city. This includes the threat and implementation of eviction by a local council, the re-development of the camp’s environs, and other manifestations of the spatial-temporalities of late-liberal urban regeneration. The thesis makes this argument through focusing on the ways that place is made, sensed, and lived by the camp’s Traveller inhabitants. It builds on practice-based approaches to place, centred on the notion of dwelling, but also critically departs from previous uses of this notion by demonstrating that ‘dwelling’ can occur in an intensely politicised and insalubrious environment. Therefore, I consider dwelling in the context of the power asymmetries of place and urban precarity, as well as how it is crucial to making a home-in-the-world. Depicting a family fiercely and desperately striving to hold onto place in the time-space of the late-liberal city, a situation that affords them little promise of a future, the thesis destabilises established understandings and analysis of Travellers’ experience, in a contemporary context. Chapter one considers how men’s skilled activity, building materials and machinery are involved in creative acts of correspondence, which coalesce to make the camp a liveable place for its inhabitants. The central suggestion is that, through making and inhabiting the camp, it also comes to make and inhabit those involved in such activities. However, the family’s ability to structure their own world, by building themselves a place to live, is contingent on a range of socio-political constraints that subject them to infrastructural violence. Chapter two turns from the camp’s built environment to examine women’s caregiving and home-making practices. It considers women’s haptic involvements with their caravans, suggesting that these activities are not simply practices of creative homemaking i but, due to the central role they play in raising families, they position women as world- formers. It also examines the ways that women’s caregiving activities are intensified by the camp’s insalubrious environmental conditions, and how these are involved in the unmaking of the family’s matriarch. Chapter three considers the relationship between men’s economic activity and the city. It draws correspondences between men’s economic transactions with non-Travellers, and hunting, suggesting that each practice consists of the skilled capacity to procure resources from particular environments. Chapters four and five turn from Travellers’ own place-making activities, to examine how a sense of place is produced from, and fractured by, the threat of eviction. In the first of these, I consider the role that state-administered documents, definitions and imaginaries play in shaping the spatial parameters of place for the Cashes. In the second I examine the ways that eviction, and the broader spatial-temporalities of late-liberal urban redevelopment, coalesce in the camp to produce a sense of place and time that is charged with affect and uncertainty. ii Declaration This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any that I have submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for a degree or diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. I further state that no substantial part of my dissertation has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted for any such degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the Preface and specified in the text. It does not exceed the prescribed word limit for the relevant Degree Committee. The total length of the dissertation is 67,125. iii Acknowledgements Comparable to the thesis itself, the problem of writing an acknowledgements section hinges on where exactly to begin. First and foremost, I express my love and appreciation to my children, some of whom, during the years I spent working on my study, left that place we call home. My heartfelt gratitude to my wife Freya Hope, who encouraged me to follow my life- long fascination with how things could be otherwise, indulged my intellectual curiosity, and without whose support the thesis would not have been possible. Special thanks to my mother Ann McKenna who was always there no matter what kind of trouble I got myself into. Much love and respect to my grandparents Sabina and Frank McKenna, for teaching me the value of developing a political consciousness, the old books, and the music. I am also grateful to grandmaster Tony Dodd for showing me the productive capacities of self-discipline. This thesis is testament to what I learned in the dojo. At Cambridge my deepest gratitude must go to my supervisor Paola Filippucci who steered my thesis towards its fruitful realisation, and for spurring me on with very encouraging commentary on my written work. Further, a special thanks to my friend and mentor Judith Okely for showing me the value of the anthropological imagination, and for her unwavering support and loyalty. Thanks also to Susan Bayly for facilitating the shift in focus from the Himalayas to Europe. My gratitude to Suzanne Hoelgaard, David Sneath and Benoit De L’Estoile and all who took part in the Cambridge and Paris seminars, for reading and commenting on my work. To Christine Oppong for reminding me that writing-up does eventually end. Thanks also to Francoise Barbira-Freedman, Patrick O’Hare and Patrick McKearney for their hospitality, warmth and friendship. I must also express my gratitude to all at Wolfson College who provided me with a place to live and to write up my research, such an endeavour would have been impossible without you. Thanks to my friends working for NGOs in Peckham, Islington and Hackney who dedicate their time and energy to fighting an uphill battle for that illusive creature, Travellers’ rights. I must mention Phien O’ Rattigan and Pat O’ Donnell the ‘Pavee phiens’ on the Gypsy Council, thanks for your time lads. It is with a heavy heart that I thank my dear friend Michael Ridge, who not only waged a one man fight against austerity and racism, working as a community social worker at Haringey’s Travelling People’s Team, but passed away as I was completing the thesis; RIP Michael. Finally, my deepest respect and gratitude to all the Travellers and Gypsies who took part in my research, without whom the thesis would not iv exist. To my hosts the Cash family, thanks for allowing a stranger to live amongst you, especially my good friends Mary and Francie for their company, hospitality, and warmth when all around them was falling to pieces. A special mention must also be given to Andy Connell, Angela Doherty, Bridget McCarthy, Rose McCarthy, Billy Welch, Kathleen Ryan, Josie O’ Driscoll, Tony Mahoney, Tracie Giles and Martin Ward RIP. Thanks to Maryanne Mahoney, who found me at a loose end at her gate and welcomed me into her home. And to many others who played a part in my study, I extend my sincerest thanks and apologies for not giving you a particular mention. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements iv Introduction. Place Matters 1 Chapter One. Carving out a Life from the City: Making Place in the Camp 24 Chapter Two. Caring for the Camp: Intimate Attachments and a Clean Sense of Place 49 Chapter Three. Getting a Living from Country People: An Economy of Space 73 Chapter Four. Detached Imaginaries of Dwelling 92 Chapter Five. Uncertain Times: The Temporality of Eviction 124 Conclusion 143 Bibliography 149 List of Illustrations: Figure 1. Eviction Notice 93 vi Introduction Place Matters Why, one might ask, would I set out to study and then write an ethnography of Travellers’ sense of place and place-making practices? Surely the category ‘sense of place’ evokes homely scenes of psycho-social belonging that are developed through sustained residence in a particular locale? (Basso 1996a; Feld 1996; Frake 1996; Kahn 1996). Does this not amount to everything Travellers, particularly those living in metropolitan contexts, are typically understood not to have? (Buckler 2007; Hoare 2006, 2014; Power 2004; Sibley 1995).1 These questions are understandable when we consider that it is widely assumed in both popular and scholarly imaginaries that Travellers, due to their ‘nomadic mind set’ (Kenny 1994: 184; McDonagh 1994: 96; Power 2004: 15) and non-sedentary uses of land (Helleiner 2000), simply do not care about place (Kabachnik 2010a. See also Buckler 2007; Gay y Blasco 1999 and Stewart 1997 for similar suggestions in relation to Gypsies).

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