Observer on the dance floor: What role do nightclubs, as affectual experiential spaces, play in individual & collective identity formation of students

这个项目考察了学生在夜总会的经历，以及在他们生活的关键过渡时期——他们的学生时代——他们对塑造年轻人身份的意义。它将利用文化研究的概念资源，通过对人类和非人类/超越人类的情感行为的分析，来询问人（去俱乐部的人）和空间（夜总会）之间的相互关系。这将包括灯光、音乐、空间内的身体和安全等方面。目前对夜总会空间的研究主要是对酒精和毒品消费的研究。虽然这是学生文化的一个重要元素（Dempster, 2011），但它并没有完整地捕捉到夜总会空间的体验，也没有充分地理解空间和身份形成的相互作用。焦点的变化打开了一个新的分析框架，检查其他社会物质行为在理解学生如何占据空间及其对身份形成的影响方面的意义。该研究将有助于文化研究对空间和身份形成之间关系的理解，借鉴和发展对情感和夜总会作为社会空间形成的理解。主要研究问题包括：-学生对夜总会的体验和看法与其他俱乐部常客不同吗？-这些夜总会的经验和做法是如何体现和表演的？-对夜总会空间的监管（即仅限学生与向公众开放）是否在体验的潜在差异中发挥积极作用？如果这个空间一周中的某些晚上只对学生开放，这是否会改变？-非人类/非人类演员在学生体验和对夜总会的看法中扮演什么角色？（如音乐、灯光等）-学生和夜总会空间之间的社会空间相互关系如何有助于个人身份的形成和“想象的（学生）社区”？这项研究的基础是在我的硕士论文中关于夜总会是否被认为是“性别空间”的研究中建立的。我的研究结果，结合评估空间身份关系领域的新兴主题（例如，见Nicholls， 2019），要求采用更具交叉性的方法。当代文化研究对夜总会的研究正在从关注身份的一个方面——即种族、性取向，或者在我的情况下，性别——转向采用更交叉的方法（Held, 2011）。虽然我之前的研究主要集中在性别的单一方面，但使用仅限学生的夜总会作为实地场地，为夜店空间的文化研究开辟了进一步的途径，这些空间受到监管，并限制了目标群体的进入权（即只允许学生顾客）。此外，这些夜总会还生产、创造和构建“作为学生”的方式，作为构成“学生生活”的更广泛的地点、空间、物体和关系的一部分。此外，它还将研究这些方面是否会更普遍地影响夜总会的体验、感知和实践，以及“学生”的体验是否与“本地”同行不同。

This project examines student experiences of nightclub spaces and their significance in shaping young people's identities during a key transitional time in their lives - their years as a student. It will interrogate the interrelationship between people (club-goers) and space (nightclubs) through analysis of both human and nonhuman/more-than-human affectual actants using conceptual resources from Cultural Studies. This will include aspects such as lighting, music, bodies within the space, and security. Current research into nightclub spaces is dominated by work on alcohol and drug consumption. Whilst this a significant element of student culture (Dempster, 2011) it does not capture the experience of night-club space in its entirety nor allow sufficient access to understanding the interplay of space and identity formation. A change in focus opens up a new analytical framework, examining the significance of other socio-material actants in understanding how students occupy the space and its effects on identity formation. The research will contribute to Cultural Studies understandings of the relationship between space and identity-formation drawing on and developing understandings of affect and the nightclubs as socio-spatial formations. Key research questions include:- Are student experiences and perceptions of nightclubs different to those of other clubgoers?- How are these nightclub experiences and practices embodied and performed?- Does regulation of nightclub spaces (i.e. student-only vs. open to the public) play an active role in the potential difference in experience? Does this change if the space is student-only certain nights of the week?- What role do non-human/more-than-human actants play in student experiences and perceptions of nightclubs? (e.g. music, lighting etc.)- How does the socio-spatial interrelationship between the students and the nightclub space contribute to identity formation of individuals and the 'imagined (student) community'?The basis for this study is founded in research conducted for my MA dissertation into whether nightclubs are considered 'gendered spaces'. My findings, combined with emerging themes in the field assessing the spaceidentity relationship (for example see Nicholls, 2019), call for a more intersectional approach. Contemporary Cultural Studies research on nightclubs is moving away from focus on one aspect of identity - i.e. race, sexuality or, in my case, gender - and instead adopts a more intersectional approach (Held, 2011). Whilst my previous research focused on the singular aspect of gender, the use of a student-only nightclub as a field-site opened up further avenues for cultural research into nightclub spaces that are regulated and restrict right of entry to targeted groups (i.e. only admitting student patrons). Moreover the ways in which these nightclubs also produce, create and construct what 'being a student' means as part of a wider constellation of places, spaces, objects and relations that make-up 'student life'. It will additionally examine whether these aspects affect theexperience, perceptions of, and practices within nightclubs more generally and whether 'students' experience these differently to their 'local' counterparts.