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

这个项目探讨了学生在夜总会空间的经验，以及他们在塑造年轻人的身份在他们的生活中的一个关键的过渡时期的意义-他们作为一个学生的岁月。它将通过使用文化研究的概念资源分析人类和非人类/超过人类的情感行为体来询问人（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关于酒精和毒品消费的研究。虽然这是学生文化的重要元素（Dempster，2011），但它并没有完整地捕捉夜总会空间的体验，也没有充分理解空间和身份形成的相互作用。焦点的变化开辟了一个新的分析框架，研究其他社会物质行为者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理解空间和身份形成之间的关系，借鉴和发展的影响和夜总会的社会空间形态的理解。关键的研究问题包括：-学生的经验和对夜总会的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执行的？对夜总会场所（即学生专用与向公众开放）的监管是否在体验的潜在差异中发挥了积极作用？如果空间是学生专用的，这会改变吗？非人类/超人类的演员在学生体验和对夜总会的看法中扮演什么角色？(e.g.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“想象中的（学生）社区”的身份形成？这项研究的基础是建立在我的硕士论文进行的研究，夜总会是否被认为是“性别空间”。我的发现，结合评估空间身份关系领域的新主题（例如，参见Nicholls，2019），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远离对身份的一个方面的关注-即种族，性取向，或者在我的情况下，性别-而是采用一种更具交叉性的方法（Held，2011）。虽然我以前的研究集中在性别的单一方面，但使用学生专用夜总会作为现场，为夜总会空间的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的进入权（即只允许学生光顾）。此外，这些夜总会还生产，创造和构建“作为一个学生”意味着什么的方式，作为构成“学生生活”的更广泛的场所，空间，物体和关系的一部分。它还将研究这些方面是否会影响夜总会内的经验，看法和做法，以及“学生”的经验是否与“当地”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.