UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Emotions, Space, and Cultural Analysis: The Case of Bike Messengers A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Jeffrey Lowell Kidder Committee in charge: Professor Christena Turner, Chair Professor Richard Biernacki Professor Michael Hanson Professor Robert Horwitz Professor Isaac Martin 2009 © Jeffrey Lowell Kidder, 2009 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Jeffrey Lowell Kidder is approved, and it is acceptable for in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2009 iii DEDICATION To my mother, who would have been proud. To Keri, who had to put up with all of this. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page........................................................................................................iii Dedication...............................................................................................................iv Table of Contents ....................................................................................................v Acknowledgement..................................................................................................vi Vita ........................................................................................................................vii Abstract.................................................................................................................viii Chapter 1: Introduction............................................................................................1 Chapter 2: The Job.................................................................................................28 Chapter 3: The Lifestyle........................................................................................58 Chapter 4: Theoretical Background.......................................................................86 Chapter 5: Messengers and Flow (Affect, Part 1) ...............................................111 Chapter 6: Alleycats as Rituals (Affect, Part 2) ..................................................143 Chapter 7: The Affective Appropriation of Space ..............................................175 Chapter 8: The Meaning of Messenger Style......................................................199 Chapter 9: Conclusions (the Politics of Appropriation)......................................241 Appendix A: An Expanded Discussion of Methods ................................................277 B: Being a Woman in the Messenger Subculture....................................291 C: A Few More Words about my Key Informants..................................299 References ...........................................................................................................317 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I want to acknowledge all the messengers who let me into their lives, and those who took the time to discuss their job and their lifestyle with me. There would have been nothing to write without the friendships of those I had the honor of meeting while on the road. There are too many names to list them all, but to everyone hustling to make that dollar: keep the rubber side down. And, of course, my committee helped me turn a jumble of ideas into something at least marginally comprehensible. I regret that my final product does not fully reflect all the wonderful advice and insightful critiques they have offered throughout the course of this project. Christena, Isaac, Rick, Michael, and Robert I owe you a huge thank you. I also want to acknowledge Jim Dowd and Ken Allan. They are two professors from my past, but their thoughts and inspiration continue to guide me through the present. And finally, Patrick Badgley had enough foolish disregard to proofread this entire manuscript. Various segments of this dissertation have previously been printed, and I would like to thank the various publishers for their permission to reuse parts of those articles here. Chapter five is derived from “It’s the Job I love:’ Bike Messengers and Edgework” (Sociological Forum vol. 21 no. 1). Chapter six is derived from “Bike Messengers and the Really Real: Effervescence, Reflexivity, and Postmodern Identity” (Symbolic Interaction vol. 29 no.1). A variation on chapter seven is forthcoming as “Appropriating the City: Space, Theory, and Bike Messengers” (Theory and Society vol. 38). Chapter eight is a reworking of “Style and Action: A Decoding of Bike Messenger Symbols” (Journal of Contemporary Ethnography vol. 34 no.3). vi VITA 1999 Bachelor of Arts, University of North Carolina at Greensboro 2004 Master of Arts, University of Georgia 2009 Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego PUBLICATIONS Kidder, Jeffrey L. 2005. “Style and Action: A Decoding of Bike Messenger Symbols.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 34 (3): 344-367. Kidder, Jeffrey L. 2006. “It's the Job I love:’ Bike Messengers and Edgework.” Sociological Forum 21 (1): 31-54. Kidder, Jeffrey L. 2006. “Bike Messengers and the Really Real: Effervescence, Reflexivity, and Postmodern Identity.” Symbolic Interaction 29 (3): 349-371. Kidder, Jeffrey L. Forthcoming. “Appropriating the City: Space, Theory, and Bike Messengers.” Theory and Society 38. FIELD OF STUDY Major Field: Sociology Cultural Sociology Qualitative Methods Social Psychology Sociological Theory Urban Sociology vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Emotions, Space, and Cultural Analysis: The Case of Bike Messengers by Jeffrey Lowell Kidder Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, San Diego, 2009 Professor Christena Turner, Chair Bike messengers are individuals who deliver time-sensitive items in the downtown cores of major cities. More than just an occupation, many bike messengers are part of what can be considered an all-encompassing lifestyle (i.e., a subculture based around “urban cycling”). The goal of this dissertation is to explain this lifestyle. viii I propose that an adequate explanation must incorporate emotions (as embodied lived experience) and physical space (as a set of structures dialectically related to all action) into the analysis. My basic argument is that when riding through the city (whether for work or for play), messengers take part in what I call an “affective appropriation of space.” It is this emplaced lived experience that gives the bike messenger subculture its meanings. To illustrate this I provide a practiced-based semiotics of messenger style that highlights the interconnection between symbols and practice. Ultimately, I argue that culture is not only emotionally felt, but spatially experienced. I conclude by ruminating on the political implications of affective spatial appropriation for understanding alienation and exploitation in the workplace. ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION A Glimpse into the Messenger Subculture Saturday, August 24th, 2002. It was just after dark, and I was in Claremont Park in the Bronx. I was dressed in a mockup of a New York Yankees baseball jersey and my face was painted yellow and red. Five other guys were dressed just like me. We called ourselves the Furies; we were a comic book caricature of a street gang. Standing around us were 84 other equally fictional gangs: the Bloody Marys, the Cutters, the Electric Vikings, the South Side Slashers, and more. In total, almost 600 hundred oddly dressed men and women were in Claremont Park that night. We all had bicycles, and many of us were bike messengers. Not just New York bike messengers, but messengers from across the country and around world: Boston, Chicago, London, Philadelphia, Tokyo, Toronto—to name just a few places. The event was called the Warriors Fun Ride—part bicycle race, part scavenger hunt, and all party (complete with costumes). The “fun ride” was a tribute to the 1979 cult classic The Warriors—a film depicting a not-so-futuristic New York City overrun by hordes of street gangs (all wearing ridiculous uniforms). The movie’s “heroes” are a gang from Coney Island, the Warriors, who must fight their way back to Brooklyn from the Bronx. Like the movie, the goal of the fun ride was to make it to Coney Island. However, before arriving at the finish, each “gang” had to make it to checkpoints scattered across the city. At these checkpoints, there was some sort of challenge or task to be completed. One checkpoint, for example, involved a game of handball. At another checkpoint, 1 2 one member of each team had to get a real tattoo (a small line drawing designed by the organizers commemorating the event). Teams received points based on their arrival time at each checkpoint, and their success at completing each challenge. Additional points could also be earned by finding answers to various trivia questions about the city (questions that no one would know the answer to unless they successfully traveled to the place in question). Beyond the checkpoints and trivia questions, there were also mandatory party stops with food and beer (and other more illicit types of intoxication)—stops where many of the racers, less interested in the actual competition, stayed well past the required time. Just like in the movie, the event was organized so the finishers arrived at Coney Island at dawn. Fifty-two of the original 85 teams stuck with it to the end. The Warriors was my first messenger event. The Thursday before, new faces started appearing in Tompkins Square Park (the most common place for messengers to congregate after work). Out-of-town messengers had started arriving in