Organising Mobility: A Sociological Investigation of the Operations of an International Airport Kenneth William Parker Bachelor of Social Sciences (Sociology) (Hons) Centre of Social Change Research School of Humanities and Human Services Queensland University of Technology Submitted for the Attainment of the Degree Doctor of Philosophy 2005 Abstract Mobility on a global scale as a product of increased interconnectivity has been a subject of interest for writers working within various disciplines in the social sciences and beyond. Few accounts, however, examine how mobility is performed by the operations of international airports. Through data acquired in interviews conducted with the management of an international airport administration, this project adds to existing accounts of mobility with an examination of the strategies, techniques, and performances that allow an international airport to operate, and which in turn, enable transportation worldwide. To analyse an airport as an organisation, this project employs a model advocated in John Law’s (1994) influential study Organizing Modernity. Law’s (1994) framework focuses attention on the often hidden performances within organisations that strain towards governance, regulation, durability, and routine. Incorporating Law’s (1994) framework, this project illuminates aspects of an airport’s operation in four thematic chapters, ‘Ordering’; ‘Communication’; ‘Materials’; and ‘Space’. Overall, this project depicts the international airport as a complex socio-technical assemblage that requires multiple, varied, and interwoven ordering performances to operate effectively. Key Words: Mobility, Airports, Organisation, Actor Network, Ordering i Acknowledgements The PhD is a most peculiar beast. It is a solo project, a task that lends to insular reflection and hours spent clambering over text in silence. Yet, to accomplish the task, the PhD researcher requires a network of colleagues, friends, family, and peers to assist at virtually every stage of the exercise. Any successes that this project has are theirs are well as mine. With those thoughts in mind I would like to thank the following people. First, I would like to thank my colleagues and peers who assisted me immensely including Dr Barbara Hanna; Dr Barbara Adkins; Professor Clive Bean; Steve Jender; Dr Paul Harrison; Emma Woodley; Alison McCallum; Dr Bruce Rich; Joanna Rose; Jean Bowra; Mark Bahnisch; Stuart Koschade; Rahimah Ibrahim; Paula Callon; Stephanie Bradbury; Dr Karen Barnett; and Chanel Bailey. Secondly, I wish to acknowledge the support of the project’s supervisor Associate Professor Gavin Kendall. Without his ‘cheerleading’ this project would have been abandoned many times over. Thirdly, I wish to thank the thesis examiners for their contribution. Their insights and expertise were much appreciated. Fourthly, I would like to thank the management of the Heffernan International Airport. Only with their support was the project possible. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to my friends and family. In particular, I would like to thank my mother, Michelle and my father, Gary for their love and support. Deepest thanks, however, is owed to my beautiful partner, Bree. Through the choice of pseudonym, Heffernan, to disguise the airport’s identity, this project is dedicated to her. ii Funding for this project was received from a bursary provided by the Queensland University of Technology Faculty Based Award (QUTFBA) and from the Centre for Social Change Research. iii “The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree or diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.” Signature: Date: iv Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1A: Bringing the Airport to the Fore: Supplementing the Sociology of Global Mobility 2 1B: Limitations, Constructing a Modest Sociology 10 1C: Why Airports? A Justification 16 1D: Theoretical Underpinnings: Guidelines for a Modest Sociology of an Airport 19 IE: Format of the Document 25 1F: Summary of Chapter 2, 'Global Mobility and Airports: A Survey of Literature' 26 1G: Summary of Chapter 3, 'Research Methods' 28 1H: Summary of Chapter 4, 'Ordering' 29 1I: Summary of Chapter 5, 'Communication' 32 1J: Summary of Chapter 6, 'Materials' 36 1K: Summary of Chapter 7, 'Space' 39 1L: Summary of Chapter 8, 'Conclusion' 42 Chapter 2: Global Mobility and Airports: A Survey of Literature 2A: Introduction 44 2B: Globalisation and Global Interconnectivity 46 2C: Travel and Tourism 50 2D: Global Mobility, Movement, Networks, and Nomads 53 2E: Airports and Airport Management 60 2F: Airports in the Social Sciences 62 2G: Literature in Summary 70 Chapter 3: Research Methods 3A: Lessons from Law: Introducing a Methodology 72 3B: Heffernan International Airport as a Research Site 81 3C: Coding Concepts 86 3D: The Preliminary Interview Round 95 3E: The Major Interview Round 98 v 3F: Collating and Analysing Data 108 3G: Research Methods in Summary 113 Chapter 4: Ordering 4A: A Story about Ordering 115 4B: Regulation on a Global Scale 119 4C: Regulations, Standards, and Manuals as Ordering Devices 127 4D: Forecasting: Magic Balls and Forecasting Practices 132 4E: Performing Futures: Ordering the Future 138 4F: Busy Hours: Acquiring Knowledge, Monitoring, and Ordering 144 4G: Ordering Flow: Transition in the Airport 150 4H: Ordering in Summary 161 Chapter 5: Communication 5A: Communication as Ordering 164 5B: Meetings: In Defence Of and Against Committees 167 5C: Information via Informal Means and Ordering 177 5D: Formal Communication, Administration, and Reliability 182 5E: Mundane Communication, Administration, and Material Performances 190 5F: Informal Communication, Enterprise, and Trust 195 5G: Communication in Summary 202 Chapter 6: Materials 6A: In Praise of the Inanimate Carbon Rod: A Story about Material Heterogeneity 205 6B: Airport Runways: Tarmac and Gradients of Material Durability 213 6C: Baggage Handling: Delegating to Actors 220 6D: ‘Interwoven Ordering’: Terminal Signage and the Ordering of Ordering Actors 227 6E: Prescription and the Ordering Performances of Airport Terminal Signage 230 6F: Airport Terminal Signage: Ordering and Being Ordered 234 6G: The A380: A Complex Technology to be Integrated 240 6H: Enterprise, Representation, and Integration of the A380 246 6I: Enterprise, Speculation, and the Integration of the A380 253 vi 6J: Materials in Summary 259 Chapter 7: Space 7A: Stories about Alfred 263 7B: Space as Performance 265 7C: The Terminal as Spatial Performance: Boundaries, Barriers, and Gates and Gatekeepers 270 7D: Tools of Transition, Travel Documents as Immutable Mobiles 278 7E: Tools of Transition and Governing at a Distance 286 7F: Environment, Ordering, and Space 296 7G: Time, Time Performance, and Ordering 301 7H: Non-Place, Repetition, and Terminal Space 310 7I: Diversified Space and the Future of Airports 317 7J: Space In Summary 328 Chapter 8: Conclusion 8A: Presenting a Bottom Line 331 8B: Contributions to the Sociology 335 8C: Contributions to Practitioners 344 8D: Limitations 347 8E: Future Directions 351 Appendix 1 A1: Main Concourse Dubai Airport 355 Appendix 2 A2: Flight Information Display Board, Heffernan International Airport 356 Appendix 3 A3: Airport Terminal Signage, Gatwick International Airport, London 357 References 358 vii “Looked at in this way organisation is an achievement, a process, a consequence, a set of resistances overcome, a precarious effect. Its components – the hierarchies, organisational arrangements, power relations, and flows of information – are the uncertain consequences of the ordering of heterogenous materials.” (Law 1992: 8) “Twenty four hours a day, 365 days a year, an aeroplane takes off or lands every few seconds somewhere on the face of the earth. Every one of these flights in handled is the same, uniform manner, whether by air traffic control, airport authorities or pilots at the controls of their aircraft. Behind the scenes are millions of employees involved in manufacturing, maintenance and monitoring of the products and services required in the never-ending cycle of flights. In fact, modern aviation is one of the most complex systems of interaction between human beings and machines ever created.” (International Civil Aviation Organisation 2004) “Movement and the organization of movement are not different.” (Law 1994: 15) 1 Chapter 1: Introduction 1A: Bringing the Airport to the Fore: Supplementing the Sociology of Global Mobility The cover of Pascoe's (2001) book Airspaces depicts a Concorde in the process of taking off. It is a stark and vivid image. The super sleek aircraft is almost dwarfed by the magnitude of the sky as a dirty trail is left in its wake. There is a beauty and poetic resonance to the picture. The aircraft appears to be powering away from the confines of the earth both symbolically and literally. Its journey seems to symbolise hope, opportunity, escape, and the possibility of freedom. As De Botton (2002: 41) describing the takeoff of an A340 explains: [T]he swiftness of the plane’s ascent is an exemplary symbol of transformation. The display of power can inspire us to imagine analogous, decisive shifts in our own lives; to imagine that we might one day surge above much that now looms over us. As a philosopher of travel, De Botton (2002) is especially aware of the power that images of mobility possess and similarly, the cover of