Upon-Tyne: Rhythms, Frames, AEcts, Assemblages and Subjectivities
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Durham E-Theses Practising the Urban Night in Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Rhythms, Frames, Aects, Assemblages and Subjectivities SHAW, ROBERT,EDWARD How to cite: SHAW, ROBERT,EDWARD (2012) Practising the Urban Night in Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Rhythms, Frames, Aects, Assemblages and Subjectivities, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3536/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Practising the Urban Night in Newcastle- upon-Tyne: Rhythms, Frames, Affects, Assemblages and Subjectivities Robert Shaw Abstract This thesis explores attempts to intervene on behaviour in the urban night in Newcastle, in order to look at the relationship between the discourses and visions of policy-makers and the lived practice of cities. At its heart is an interest in how imagining and encouraging the emergence of new subjectivities has been a central part of the neoliberal ‘night-time economy’ – a term which I challenge as being too restrictive to describe the urban night. I seek to expand upon previous researchers who have too narrowly focused on the alcohol and leisure industry, abstracted from the rest of the night, which results in an inadequate description of the variety of actants involved in producing the subjectivities associated with the urban night. This thesis thus focuses on the four-way relationship between the built environment, legislation/policy, bodies, and subjectivities, as governed in the urban night. To do this, I conducted ethnographic and interview research with street-cleaners, taxi drivers, policy makers and bar staff in order to focus on the role of peripheral actors in producing the urban night. As thesis develops, I explore a ‘vocabulary of practice’ in order to set out the process of the emergence of subjectivities, and the different ways in which these are acted upon: in doing so, I introduce concepts of framing, assemblage, multiplicity, enunciation and affect, amongst others. This, then, draws from a diverse group of theorists, including the work of Felix Guattari, Giles Deleuze, Henri Lefebvre, Gregory Bateson, actor-network theory and non-representational theories. The thesis concludes by suggesting that further work is required on the relationship between policy formation and cities as practiced in everyday life, and that the theoretical approach used in this thesis provides suggestions as to how this might be developed. Practising the Urban Night in Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Rhythms, Frames, Affects, Assemblages and Subjectivities Robert Shaw Thesis submitted for PhD Department of Geography Durham University 2011 2 Table of Contents 1. The View from the Afternoon: The Urban Night in the UK ............................................................. 8 1.1 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 16 2. Research Context .......................................................................................................................... 19 2.1 Research Context: A History of Urban Governance and Nightlife in Newcastle-upon-Tyne .. 19 2.2 Literature Review: Social Science Research into the Night-Time Economy ........................... 24 2.2 i) Night beyond NTE-studies................................................................................................ 33 2.3 Methodology and Empirical Areas .......................................................................................... 36 2.3 i) Stage One: Probelmatisation and Empirical scoping study ............................................. 38 2.3 ii) Stage Two: Empirical Areas and main body of research ................................................. 42 2.3 iii) Taxis ................................................................................................................................ 47 2.3 iv) Street-Cleaning ............................................................................................................... 49 2.3 v) Bodily experience of the urban night .............................................................................. 52 2.3 vi) Alive After Five ............................................................................................................... 54 2.3 vii) Stage Three: Representation and Narration ................................................................. 56 2.4 Turning to the Night ................................................................................................................ 57 3. Rhythms in the Urban Night: The Incessant City .......................................................................... 59 3.1 Rhythms and Rhythmanalysis in Geography .......................................................................... 61 3.2 Rhythms of the Night-Time City: Timetables, Institutions and ,obilities ................................ 75 3.3 Rhythms of the Body at Night: Liquids, Foods, Sleep ............................................................. 80 3.4 Time-Space Diagrams of Newcastle at Night .......................................................................... 86 3.5 Rhythms and Incessancy ......................................................................................................... 91 3.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 96 4. Framing, Multiplicity and Atmosphere ....................................................................................... 101 4.1 Multiplicity and the Multiple ................................................................................................ 104 4.1 i) Deleuzoguattarian Multiplicity ...................................................................................... 104 4.1 ii) ANT and the Multiple .................................................................................................... 110 4.2 Framing ................................................................................................................................. 112 4.3 Framing Multiplicities in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at Night ..................................................... 120 4.3 i) Historical Framings ......................................................................................................... 123 4.3 ii) Policy Frames ................................................................................................................ 126 4.3 iii) Architectural and Infrastructural Framing ................................................................... 127 4.3 iv) Spatio-Temporal Framings ........................................................................................... 129 4.3 v) Corporeal Frames .......................................................................................................... 131 4.3 vi) Molecular Frames ......................................................................................................... 133 4.3 vii) The Elusory .................................................................................................................. 134 3 4.3 viii) Transversality, Enunciations and Multiplicity............................................................. 136 4.4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 137 5.1 Affect ..................................................................................................................................... 142 5.2 Assemblages .......................................................................................................................... 150 5.3 Alcohol in the Urban Night.................................................................................................... 157 5.3 i)Alcohol and Night-Time Mobilities ................................................................................. 159 5.3 ii)Alcohol and Public Space at Night ................................................................................. 162 5.3 iii) Alcohol and Street Cleaning ......................................................................................... 164 5.3 iv) Regulating across the Assemblage ............................................................................... 167 5.3 v) Alcohol as Affective Materiality .................................................................................... 170 5.3 vi) Alcohol in the Geordie Body Politic .............................................................................. 173 5.4 To Subjectivities ........................................................................................................................ 176 6. Emergent nocturnal subjectivities .............................................................................................