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，以及他们在年轻人生命中的关键过渡时期--学生时代--在塑造他们身份方面的重要性。它将通过对人类和非人类/比人类更多的情感行为的分析，利用文化研究的概念资源来询问人(俱乐部常客)和空间(夜总会)之间的相互关系。这将包括照明、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关于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(邓普斯特，2011)，但它并没有捕捉到夜总会空间的全部体验，也不允许有足够的机会了解空间和身份形成的相互作用。焦点的改变打开了一个新的分析框架，考察了其他社会物质活动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。这项研究将有助于文化研究对空间和身份形成之间的关系的理解，借鉴和发展对情感和夜总会作为社会空间形式的理解。主要研究问题包括：-学生对夜总会的体验和看法是否与其他夜总会常客不同？-这些夜总会体验和实践是如何体现和执行的？-夜总会空间的监管(即仅限学生使用与向公众开放)是否在潜在的体验差异中发挥了积极作用？如果空间是学生专用的，这种情况会改变吗？-非人类/比人类更多的演员在学生体验和对夜总会的看法中扮演什么角色？(例如，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和“想象的(学生)社区”的身份形成？这项研究的基础是为我的硕士论文所进行的关于夜总会是否被认为是“性别空间”的研究。我的发现，结合评估空间身份关系领域的新兴主题(例如，见Nicholls，2019年)，呼吁采取更具交叉性的方法。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，或者在我的情况下，性别--转向更具交叉性的方法(Hold，2011)。虽然我之前的研究集中在性别的单一方面，但将一家仅供学生使用的夜总会作为实地场地，为对夜总会空间进行文化研究开辟了进一步的途径，这些夜总会空间受到监管，并限制目标群体(即仅允许学生顾客进入)的进入权利。此外，这些夜总会还产生、创造和构建了作为一名学生意味着什么的方式，这是由更广泛的场所、空间、物体和关系组成的星座的一部分，这些星座构成了“学生生活”。此外，它还将检查这些方面是否会影响更广泛的夜总会的体验、感知和实践，以及“学生”体验这些是否与“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.