- Presenter: Dr Haynes Collins, Associate Professor of Intercultural Studies, University of Leeds
- Discussants: Dr Sara Van Meerbergen, Stockholm University and Dr Elisabetta Adami, University of Leeds
Friday 23 February 12.00pm-1.30pm BST online
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Abstract
This talk draws on three research projects which have a common focus on ‘being together’ in shared spaces or within what Klinenberg (2018) terms ‘social infrastructure’. This term represents inclusive common areas where people encounter each other. Parks, libraries, city squares all serve as examples, but my primary attention has been on publicly accessible swimming pools, and I consider three principal aspects regarding their use. Firstly, I employ McMurtry’s (2017) tripartite model to consider the impact that the built environment (the architecture, the layout, the signage, and the management of space) exerts on its users. This not only includes the physical manifestation of the pool structure, but the historical narratives and memories that continue to dwell within these spaces and are a resource for social cohesion.
Second is the force that people exert on each other as they interact in proximity through a range of semiotic resources to project and signal their intent. The misinterpretation of these signals and of hidden rules (Scott, 2009) can lead to some users experiencing a sense of cognitive dissonance and I consider data which suggests ways this anxiety can be reduced. The third aspect is how shared public spaces can become places of discord where ‘different’ cultural practices are positioned as ‘other’. In this respect, a publicly accessible pool serves as the locus for underlying social tensions and reveals how social interaction is structured to make those in power feel comfortable and more marginalised groups uncomfortable (Gökarksel 2021, p.7).
In extreme cases, as seen in the third study from this series, users of public space can experience forms of othering and violence through media and political discourse which refuses to acknowledge plural identities. This has a direct impact on users’ sense of belonging and can render shared spaces inaccessible. However, this third study also highlights how hegemonic assumptions which deny plural identities can be challenged through multimodal arts-based resistance, humour and street engagement.
Website: https://anthropologyofswimming.com/
Articles:
- Collins, H. & Boumechaal, S. (forthcoming). The Campaign and Desire for Bodily Autonomy and Belonging in Grenoble, France: Resisting Epistemic Violence, Media Discourse and Othering.
- Collins, H. (2022) ‘The politics of intercultural space: Inclusive, unobtrusive, and failed mediation.’ In Busch, D. (ed) The Routledge Handbook of Intercultural Mediation. New York: Routledge.
- Collins, H. (2021). Mermaids, knitted costumes and pink carbolic soap: Making meaning and translating social space in community-led pools. Language and Intercultural Communication. 21(1), 69-82. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2020.1833899.
- Collins, H. & Pajak, C. (2019). The performance of swimming: Disorder, difference and marginality within a publicly-accessible pool. Language and Intercultural Communication. 19(1), 64-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2018.1545027
References:
- Evolvi, G. (2019). The veil and its materiality: Muslim women’s digital narratives about the burkini ban, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 34(3), 469-487. https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2019.1658936
- Gökarksel, B., Hawkins, M., Neubert, C., Smith, S (Eds.), (2021). Feminist geography unbound: Discomfort, bodies and prefigured futures. Morgantown, West Virginia University Press.
- Klinenberg, E. (2018). Palaces for the people: How to build a more equal and united society. Bodley Head.
- McMurtry, R. (2017) Multimodality in the built environment: A user’s perspective. Routledge.
- Scott, S. (2009) Reclothing the emperor: The swimming pool as a negotiated order. Symbolic Interaction, 32(2), 123-145. https://doi.org/10.1525/si2009.32.2.123
Biosketches
Haynes Collins is Associate Professor at the University of Leeds where he teaches Intercultural Studies at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. His research falls broadly into the category of intercultural communication/studies and he is specifically interested in how institutional and media discourses mobilise the concept of culture and interculturality to serve ideological agendas. His most recent research project (An Anthropology of Swimming) investigated everyday encounters in a series of three distinct social swimming spaces.
Sara Van Meerbergen is Associate Professor in Dutch and Director of Studies for the Dutch language section at Stockholm University. Her research interests include social semiotics, multimodal and spatial discourse analysis, picture book studies, (descriptive) translation studies and translation sociology. She has a specific interest in visual and multimodal communication and in multimodal depictions and constructions of childhood and womanhood in (translated) picture books and other multimodal media (for children). Current projects are within translation sociology and evolve around the transnational circulation of Dutch language (children’s) literature and (self-)mediation of female metamodern millennial authors on social media. Personal website: https://www.su.se/english/profiles/sava5355-1.184479
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