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Sociology zine<br />
ISSUE ONE
Editors<br />
Yasmin Gunaratnam<br />
Tennessee Woodiel<br />
Ashley Carter<br />
Oluwatoyin Sonubi<br />
Design<br />
Ashley Carter<br />
Sonia Turcotte<br />
Email<br />
splitmaginfo@gmail.com<br />
Instagram<br />
@split_mag<br />
Twitter<br />
@magsplit<br />
Cover<br />
Celeste Williams<br />
‘Reflective Cultural Dissociation’
CONTENTS<br />
1-4<br />
Selfridges’ Skate Park<br />
5-6<br />
zero-hours contract<br />
7-8<br />
Frida Kahlo<br />
9-10<br />
The Last Leg<br />
11-12<br />
Flags & Space<br />
13-14<br />
The Space Between Us<br />
15-16<br />
Passages<br />
17-18<br />
Cities on Screen<br />
19-20<br />
Sounds of the street<br />
21-22<br />
Save Tidemill !<br />
23-24<br />
Writing to Fight<br />
25-28<br />
Time to wake up<br />
29<br />
Yellow<br />
30<br />
Interview with dr.coleman
Selfridges’ Skate Park – No Thanks<br />
Leon-Piers Scott<br />
I have been a skateboarder for 18<br />
years, or about two-thirds of my<br />
life. I have always been interested in<br />
skateboarding as a subculture and also<br />
as a business. It was with this interest<br />
in the crossover between subculture<br />
and business that I decided recently<br />
to visit the ‘Skate Bowl’ in the Selfridges<br />
store on Oxford Street.<br />
I approached the store at around<br />
6pm, marvelling at the juxtaposition<br />
between the people who are<br />
shopping - and quite clearly enjoying<br />
themselves - and those who cannot<br />
wait to get home after a long day at<br />
the office. The first window display<br />
I encountered was an immediate reminder<br />
that youth subculture will<br />
never be safe from the grip of high<br />
fashion, with a Gucci denim jacket and<br />
a Balmain leather jacket interspersed<br />
amongst what looked like a punk rock<br />
nativity scene.<br />
Inside the store I was greeted by a<br />
gaudy Gucci concession to my right<br />
and a walkway filled with eager consumers.<br />
I was immediately aware that<br />
I looked very underdressed compared<br />
to the rest of the customers, most<br />
of whom were wearing smart winter<br />
coats and what looked to be brand<br />
new, expensive, carefully considered<br />
ensembles. But I found some comfort<br />
in knowing that I would be among<br />
1<br />
other skateboarders soon enough.<br />
As I got off the escalator at the first<br />
floor, I was confronted with a large<br />
sign ‘MENSWEAR’. In the corner of<br />
the shop floor was a large structure<br />
made from perspex and wood and I<br />
could faintly hear the oh-so familiar<br />
sound of skateboards grinding and<br />
slapping against wooden ramps and<br />
metal coping. The sound was largely<br />
overpowered by a grime track called<br />
BMT by an artist called Fredo (Field<br />
Recording can be listened to here -<br />
https://soundcloud.com/leonpscott/<br />
grime-track-selfridges). I crossed the<br />
shop floor cautiously so as to not<br />
damage or snag any of the Stone Island<br />
coats or the Balenciaga tee shirts<br />
with the pen that was sticking out of<br />
the bottom corner of my tote bag.<br />
And I arrived at the skatepark.<br />
Outside the ramp complex was a man<br />
carrying a clipboard and wearing a<br />
name badge, his name was Nathan. I<br />
asked him if I could go inside and take<br />
some photos for a project I am working<br />
on. He advised me that I could<br />
take photos from outside but I would<br />
have to contact Selfridges press team<br />
or book online for one of the largely<br />
booked up sessions to actually skate<br />
the bowl, if I wanted to take photos<br />
from inside. I asked him about the<br />
booking process and he explained that
sessions are largely booked up for the<br />
coming weeks but spaces free up all<br />
the time and that you are supposed<br />
to book in based on your ability level.<br />
I thanked him and took photographs<br />
from the outside. I realised that I<br />
had felt a bit excluded, having been<br />
a skateboarder for 18 years, this was<br />
the first time I had ever been refused<br />
entry to a skatepark that other people<br />
were using.<br />
I went to Selfridges not simply to<br />
complain about it - and the masses of<br />
other brands - using skateboarding as<br />
a marketing tool. Even though I still<br />
adorn my skateboard with ‘DON’T<br />
DO IT’ stickers, in opposition to Nike’s<br />
skateboarding footwear range and<br />
wear the Cardiff Skateboard Clubs,<br />
‘FUCK CHAIN STORE SKATE SHOPS’<br />
tee shirt. The main reason I visited<br />
the Selfridges skate park was to try<br />
to further explore the tension that<br />
whilst skateboarding is used as a marketing<br />
ploy by commerical buisnesses,<br />
now more than ever, is it also marketed<br />
as an inclusive culture.<br />
The location of the Skate Bowl in the<br />
menswear section is significant. There<br />
was literature availble on the side of<br />
the bowl stating that a professional<br />
woman skateboarder named Sam<br />
Bruce played a part in the otherwise<br />
all-male team that helped bring the<br />
bowl to Selfridges. But there was no<br />
real indication that girls and young<br />
women were welcome to come and<br />
skate. Some may say that it is a given<br />
that girls are welcome and I would<br />
agree with that—if the bowl was on a<br />
floor that was more ambiguous in its<br />
gendering.<br />
This locating of the bowl in menswear<br />
supports my feeling that there is little<br />
to no interest in the female— or<br />
trans—skateboarders with regards to<br />
high fashion and the mass media, even<br />
though there are plenty of girls and<br />
women that skate or who are interested<br />
in skateboarding. Burberry and<br />
Louis Vuitton are not calling the biggest<br />
women’s names in skateboarding<br />
and asking them to model for<br />
them, as they are with professional<br />
male skateboarders Ben Nordberg and<br />
Alex Olsen. Selfridges is not calling<br />
Sam Bruce and asking her to open a<br />
skatepark in the womenswear sec-<br />
2
tion. This says to me that the companies<br />
that are using skateboarding as<br />
a marketing device, use it to convey a<br />
watered down, rather normative idea<br />
of masculine rebellion. Because let’s<br />
face it, when considering ‘urban’ subcultures,<br />
skateboarding is effectively<br />
the least rebellious, when compared<br />
to graffiti, grime, punk, street motocross<br />
and the like.<br />
As I came back down the escalator<br />
to leave the store I was confronted<br />
again with the bright pink Gucci concession<br />
that sits directly beneath the<br />
skatepark. I felt a certain humorous<br />
absurdity that our subculture had<br />
somehow ended up on top of Gucci<br />
in Selfridges on Oxford Street. I was<br />
also left thinking about the young<br />
skateboarders whose parents may<br />
take them to Selfridges over the<br />
Christmas break or the coming weekends.<br />
I thought about the possibility<br />
of a young girl that would have to<br />
battle through a labyrinth of men’s<br />
coats that are worth two thousand<br />
pounds, to a soundtrack of testosterone<br />
fuelled music on her way to the<br />
bowl. I wondered if that would be her<br />
understanding of what skateboarding<br />
is until she decides that it’s not for<br />
her. If that young skateboarder is a<br />
boy, will he get involved because of<br />
the machine of mainstream fashion<br />
- as opposed to what I feel are the<br />
‘honest’ reasons me and my friends<br />
got into it as kids? And will he eventually<br />
give up when it falls back out<br />
of fashion? If that young skateboarder<br />
doesn’t conform to heteronormative<br />
or gender stereotypes will the<br />
promotion of skateboarding in such a<br />
masculine environment alienate him,<br />
her or them?<br />
3
For me, and for the scene I grew up in,<br />
skateboarding was about community<br />
and friendship. It was about inclusivity<br />
and looking out for one, respecting<br />
differences of gender, sexuality and<br />
race. I am aware this is not always<br />
the case for the wider skateboarding<br />
scene as there are serious problems<br />
with gay and trans skateboarders<br />
feeling as though they are not able<br />
to come out. Skateboard companies<br />
still peddle boards with graphics and<br />
slogans that are offensive to many<br />
people, and girls that are learning to<br />
skate still get heckled at skateparks.<br />
But, we are also seeing more social<br />
progress than ever before. Women<br />
are getting more coverage in the<br />
skateboarding media. The skateboarding<br />
world cup—which is one of the<br />
biggest stages in skateboarding—has<br />
equal prize funds for men and women<br />
and other competitions are following<br />
suit. There have been more women<br />
inductees into the skateboarding hall<br />
of fame in the last three years and<br />
Brian Anderson who is one of the biggest<br />
names in skateboarding came out<br />
as gay in 2016. He has since started<br />
a LGBTQ+ activism zine ‘Cave Homo’,<br />
which has received a largely positive<br />
response from within the skateboarding<br />
community. And finally, the number<br />
of young girls that are taking to<br />
skateboarding is higher than ever.<br />
The recent ‘mainstreaming’ of skateboarding<br />
is not an inherently bad thing.<br />
If more people are getting into skateboarding,<br />
the skateboarding world<br />
will welcome them and it will keep<br />
skate stores open across the world.<br />
However, if more people are getting<br />
into skateboarding through representations<br />
of it in the mass media<br />
and in fashion, these industries have<br />
a responsibility to market it in such a<br />
way that is inclusive to all genders,<br />
all sexualitys and all races. At present,<br />
it seems that when skateboarding<br />
is used for marketing purposes by<br />
those who aren’t skateboarders, it is<br />
only represented in a way that gives<br />
a very one dimensional—white masculine—image<br />
of the scene I love.<br />
Leon-Piers Scott is a 28 year old first<br />
year BA Sociology student from Bristol<br />
with a background in skateboarding,<br />
electronic music and digital marketing.<br />
4
5<br />
The injustice of the zero-hours contract<br />
Picture this. You’re young, fresh out<br />
of school, wondering what kind of<br />
job you should take. You want to<br />
earn your keep, you need an income.<br />
What’s the easiest way? What about<br />
a job that’s flexible, one where you<br />
get to work whenever you want?<br />
That seems fair, doesn’t it?<br />
If that last sentence left a pit in<br />
your stomach, that might be because<br />
you’ve worked this sort of job, or you<br />
know someone who has. We’re talking<br />
about the zero-hours contract, where<br />
your work is unstable and precarious.<br />
It’s not an entirely new approach, having<br />
been a staple practice in the retail<br />
and health sectors for many years<br />
– and the criticisms from that time,<br />
such as unsteady pay and hours and a<br />
lack of rights, are still relevant today.<br />
But in recent years a spotlight has<br />
been shone on the zero-hours contract<br />
yet again, helped by the smartphone<br />
era we live in. The zero-hours<br />
contract powers services like Uber<br />
and Deliveroo and is interwoven<br />
into so many of our lives. You want<br />
take-out? You order it on your phone<br />
and someone whisks it to your address,<br />
one of a crew of many, darting<br />
around cities all over Britain. The new<br />
argument for such contracts takes a<br />
slightly different spin: this time round,<br />
it’s that these jobs and the ability to<br />
Luka Sotelo<br />
choose the hours you need is actually<br />
valuable. But valuable to whom?<br />
Contemporary zero-hours contracts<br />
force workers to declare themselves<br />
as self-employed, acknowledging<br />
their “employers” as something more<br />
like an agent, putting you in contact<br />
with clientele. This type of relationship<br />
strips you of certain rights that<br />
steady employment provides – your<br />
right to sick pay, your right to regular<br />
shifts. It also saves your “agent”<br />
the cost of providing you access to<br />
these basic rights. Whilst such companies<br />
post profits off the back of these<br />
contracts, their workers can fall into<br />
debt, become ill because of the long<br />
working hours, are required to provide<br />
the means for their trade, and are<br />
sometimes driven to the brink. Think<br />
back to Jerome Rogers, the young man<br />
from Croydon who took his own life<br />
after spiralling into debt that he owed<br />
to CitySprint and Camden Council, all<br />
accrued whilst working his zero-hours<br />
job.<br />
If you don’t remember that case,<br />
that’s understandable. I didn’t either.<br />
We forget such things, perhaps because<br />
we unconsciously subscribe to<br />
a sense of inevitability with injustices<br />
such as these. It’s a dog-eat-dog<br />
world we’re told. And you either<br />
survive being taken advantage of and
ise through the ranks, or you crash<br />
under the waves. In his book ‘Injustice:<br />
why social inequality persists,’ Danny<br />
Dorling discusses this paradoxical acceptance<br />
of injustice (along with other<br />
forms of modern injustice) in more<br />
detail.<br />
We find ourselves trapped in sort of<br />
zero-hour jobs because there’s such<br />
a dearth of stable jobs. We become<br />
indentured, Dorling argues, in a modern-day<br />
form of slavery, one that<br />
the working and under-class of Britain<br />
finds themselves subjected to. In<br />
layperson’s terms: even though we<br />
know how bad these jobs are, many<br />
still find themselves forced to take<br />
them because it might be all we have.<br />
The companies know it and so do<br />
their workers. Dorling comments: “it<br />
simply isn’t ‘economic,’ […] for people<br />
not to be forced to undertake work<br />
they would otherwise not choose to<br />
do,” he continues, “the question of<br />
economic expense [of paying a living<br />
wage] is raised to make such a prospect<br />
appear impossible, just as the<br />
idea of paying slaves was once an<br />
anathema.” “You’re your own boss!”<br />
translates into you supplying your<br />
own tools, taking unsteady work, all<br />
whilst paying a cut of your wage back<br />
to these companies for being your<br />
agent. But critique it as we may, the<br />
unfortunate truth remains: it’s sometimes<br />
the only job some people have<br />
left to take. Should we be grateful?<br />
Luka Sotelo is a first-year BA Sociology<br />
student at Goldsmiths, University of<br />
London, having previously undertaken<br />
studies at Birkbeck, University of London.<br />
He is greatly interested in class<br />
and queer theory in part due to being<br />
a raging homosexual.<br />
If this topic interests you should consider<br />
reading:<br />
Dorling, D. (2015) Injustice, revised ed.<br />
Bristol: Policy Press.<br />
Fleming, P. (2017) The Human Capital<br />
Hoax: Work, Debt and Insecurity in<br />
the Era of Uberization. Organization<br />
Studies, 38(5), pp. 691-709.<br />
Jones, R. (2018) ‘Debt collectors<br />
held to account after traffic fines<br />
claim a life’, The Guardian, 26th<br />
May 2018. Available at: <br />
Taylor, M., Neville, S., Inman, P. &<br />
Waldram, H. (2013) ‘Zero hours Britain:<br />
‘I didn’t know week to week what<br />
I was going to get’’, The Guardian,<br />
30th July 2013. Available at: <br />
6
Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up review –<br />
why do we want to look at her sleeping medication?<br />
Abigail Joseph<br />
Walking into the exhibition, I am<br />
slightly overwhelmed by the sheer<br />
number of people packed into one<br />
space. There are groups of people<br />
crowded around each artwork and, at<br />
4’11”, I am feeling very short. We are<br />
all here to see Kahlo’s artwork and<br />
some of her personal possessions,<br />
many of which are in the UK for the<br />
first time ever.<br />
I am stunned by the brightness of<br />
the colours in her paintings. The reds,<br />
blues, yellows, and browns. They are<br />
so vivid. Seeing the paintings in person<br />
is to see them almost come alive. I<br />
walk through the exhibition, reading<br />
about the life of the person who created<br />
such beautiful works. In doing so,<br />
it is clear that Kahlo experienced a lot<br />
of pain in her life. Surviving polio as a<br />
child and a bus accident at 18 which<br />
left her with a permanent disability<br />
and near-guaranteed infertility, the<br />
wealth of Kahlo’s pain is highlighted in<br />
the exhibition.<br />
for her art, her politics, and the fearless<br />
way in which she lived her life.<br />
The way in which her image has been<br />
commodified has transformed her to<br />
an almost godlike status. Seeing her<br />
make-up, her perfume, and her beautiful<br />
handmade clothes goes some way<br />
to reversing this. I see some brands I<br />
recognise, such as Pond’s Cold Cream<br />
and Chanel perfume, and I think about<br />
Kahlo as a person with her own skincare<br />
regimen like the rest of us.<br />
Her corsets and prosthetic legs (she<br />
often wore long and loose-fitting<br />
skirts and dresses to cover both) sit<br />
in transparent plastic boxes and you<br />
are invited to peer closely at them.<br />
Immediately, I am struck by the communist<br />
symbol emblazoned on the<br />
former and the vivid red of the boot<br />
attached to the latter. I love Kahlo<br />
7<br />
However, at one point, I did feel rather<br />
uncomfortable. I was peering inside<br />
a box which contained Kahlo’s sleeping<br />
medication and reading some attached<br />
information about how she would beg
her doctors for extra pills so she<br />
could get to sleep despite being in<br />
pain. I wondered to myself whether<br />
Kahlo would want something as personal<br />
as the drugs she took each night<br />
to be on display, with people paying<br />
to gawp at them. This was also connected<br />
to the way in which the V&A<br />
seemed to skirt around Kahlo’s communism<br />
with their information guides<br />
in the exhibition. You could see for<br />
yourself in her artwork and her corset,<br />
among other possessions, that<br />
she was a proud communist, but no<br />
part of the exhibition mentioned this<br />
in detail.<br />
‘I felt that<br />
seeing some of<br />
kahlo’s more<br />
personal items<br />
was going too far’<br />
Granted, it was amazing to view some<br />
of her possessions, such as her beautiful<br />
clothes, and gain valuable context<br />
about the links to indigenous Mexican<br />
traditions and the local seamstresses<br />
who made her clothes for her, for example.<br />
But I felt that seeing some of<br />
Kahlo’s more personal items was going<br />
too far. Kahlo is arguably one of the<br />
most famous artists of our time, but<br />
does this negate her right to privacy?<br />
I felt like a voyeur and I wondered if<br />
seeing all of Kahlo’s possessions truly<br />
helped people to better understand<br />
and more closely relate to Kahlo.<br />
Nearing the end of my exhibition, I<br />
overheard a group of women gathered<br />
around a painting and talking about<br />
how much they loved Kahlo because<br />
of how ‘cool’ and ‘strong’ her eyebrows<br />
were.<br />
The exhibition frames Kahlo as a talented<br />
body in pain, but does not appear<br />
to consider the way in which it<br />
constructs Kahlo as a body to be voyeuristically<br />
dissected and consumed<br />
by a public composed of people who<br />
are either aware of that fact and try<br />
to avoid doing so or those who avidly<br />
participate, reducing Kahlo to the hairs<br />
on her face.<br />
Abigail Joseph is a third-year BA Sociology<br />
student. Can be found watching<br />
documentaries, reading from the<br />
ever-increasing pile of books in her<br />
room, or raving about the amazing vegan<br />
prawn balls she had (far to many<br />
times) in Denmark.<br />
8
The Last Leg is a late night chat show<br />
that has just begun its fifteenth series<br />
on Channel Four. The show’s host<br />
Adam Hills has described it as “three<br />
guys with four legs talking about<br />
the week”. It was first commissioned<br />
to run alongside the London 2012<br />
Paralympics but has now become a<br />
topical comedy show.<br />
On television, the images and storylines<br />
we see of disabled people<br />
are often those derived from a medical<br />
model of disability. That is, the<br />
idea that something is ‘wrong’ with<br />
a person that must be cured or rehabilitated.<br />
Disabled bodies can be a<br />
site for pity, focusing only on disability.<br />
Another popular trope is that of<br />
the ‘supercrip’, a disabled person who<br />
has triumphed over tragedy, to excel<br />
in a particular area (often sport).<br />
There can be an underlying narrative<br />
to this trope, especially when a disabled<br />
person does something inspirational—every<br />
other disabled person is<br />
expected to be able to do the same.<br />
In 2005, Ofcom released a research<br />
report on the representation of people<br />
with disabilities on analogue terrestrial<br />
television. It analysed around<br />
800 programmes a year between<br />
1993 and 2004 on the top four UK<br />
terrestrial channels, and then five<br />
from 1997. The report found that<br />
9<br />
The Last Leg<br />
Jenny Stanlake<br />
although at the time the estimated<br />
percentage of the population with a<br />
disability was between 14-19%, only<br />
12% of programmes sampled in 2004<br />
included disability representations,<br />
with less than 1/100 characters in<br />
the programmes being disabled. The<br />
report concluded that the most common<br />
disabilities were those most easily<br />
recognised, including mobility; sensory<br />
impairment; and disfigurement/<br />
physical impairment, because as well<br />
as being the most easily recognised,<br />
they are also the most visible.<br />
With these findings in mind, I’ve wondered<br />
whether The Last Leg plays<br />
plays into media stereotypes and<br />
whether it has been able to positively<br />
change representations of disabled<br />
people.<br />
In the first post-Paralympic show Hills<br />
explained how he, and the two other<br />
presenters Alex Brooker and Josh<br />
Widdicombe first collaborated to talk<br />
about disability sport, but that people<br />
were wondering what the show was<br />
going to be after the Paralympics. Hills<br />
read out a viewer’s tweet ‘I couldn’t<br />
work out if it was crip related or just<br />
a new comedy show’. Hills responded<br />
that it was a ‘new comedy show, but<br />
it [would] cover crip related material’<br />
(2013). This change of purpose and<br />
the shift in focus from disability, also
demonstrated that the presenters’<br />
are more than their disabilities. This<br />
seems like a positive development.<br />
In an interview on the BBC Radio 4<br />
programme No Triumph No Tragedy in<br />
2017, Adam Hills explained how for<br />
his first thirteen years as a comedian<br />
he did not disclose his disability because<br />
he did not want to be known<br />
only as the ‘disabled comedian’. His<br />
work on the Last Leg has meant that<br />
he doesn’t have to shy away from his<br />
disability, it is part of his identity, but<br />
he also doesn’t have to discuss it all<br />
the time because it isn’t his only identity.<br />
‘visible<br />
disabilities<br />
are not<br />
the only<br />
disabilities’<br />
But are there other ways in which the<br />
Last Leg is a radical change, not only<br />
in its attitudes towards disability, but<br />
in the forms of disability it portrays?<br />
The Ofcom research report that I<br />
mentioned is over 10 years old, yet<br />
little on television seems to have<br />
changed. Having been an avid viewer<br />
of the Last Leg, I’ve been surprised<br />
at the lack of representation of ‘invisible’<br />
disabilities. This could be because<br />
most Paralympic athletes have<br />
a visible/physical disability, the only<br />
classification to cater for invisible disabilities<br />
is ‘intellectual impairments’.<br />
However, we know that visible disabilities<br />
are not the only disabilities, and<br />
to only portray these on a television<br />
show like the Last Leg, risks reducing<br />
disability to the physical and visible.<br />
For me, the representation of disability<br />
is a constant battle, most recently<br />
in terms of the super-crip trope. I<br />
think more complex representations<br />
are possible, where for example disability<br />
doesn’t come to define a disabled<br />
person and where there is a<br />
greater diversity of representations of<br />
disabilities.<br />
Jenny Stanlake is a third year Sociology<br />
student. Her interests lie in disability<br />
studies, human rights and antisemitism.<br />
After her Undergraduate<br />
degree she hopes to do a Disability<br />
Studies MA. Jenny is also this year’s<br />
Accessibility and Inclusion (Disability)<br />
student rep.<br />
10
Flags & Space<br />
Ashley Carter<br />
@ac_creative<br />
“A national flag has no real significance for peaceful uses.”<br />
HG Wells<br />
When you see a flag in a<br />
public space, how do you<br />
react? Does it depend on<br />
the space? The flag itself?<br />
In my photography and<br />
sociological work, I’m<br />
interested in how flags,<br />
particularly the Union<br />
Jack, are seen and<br />
interpreted in different<br />
spaces.<br />
From train stations,<br />
underground gigs, to<br />
counter-protests, flags<br />
communicate an idea or<br />
concept which is drawn<br />
from your own experience<br />
and interpretations of what<br />
it means.<br />
11
Consider what are the social<br />
functions of the use of the Union Jack<br />
in Oxford Street or its use in Britain’s<br />
First counter-protest?<br />
What in both instances is the exact<br />
same flag conveying to you?<br />
When you next see a flag<br />
in a public space,<br />
consider what message is<br />
it trying to convey?<br />
Patriotism?<br />
Nationalism?<br />
Is it attempting<br />
to convey values<br />
or subvert them?<br />
12
13<br />
The Space Between Us<br />
Bhima is a servant to Sera Dubash,<br />
working to keep her plush Bombay<br />
home clean, tidy and running like<br />
clockwork. She wakes up every morning<br />
in her sweltering slum dwellings,<br />
unfolds her overworked creaking<br />
body, and prepares to do the same<br />
thing she did yesterday.<br />
And the same thing she will do tomorrow.<br />
Bhima takes herself down to<br />
the dirty stream that acts as lavatory,<br />
drinking water and bath for the<br />
residents of the slum, and attempts<br />
to alleviate the smell of her body.<br />
A man sits watching a few metres<br />
down stream and Bhima flushes from<br />
the humiliation of this daily ritual.<br />
Although done a thousand times, it<br />
never fails to shame her. The walk<br />
to Sera’s home is long and hot, every<br />
inch of the journey imprinted on the<br />
memory of her body.<br />
Over 20 years, as Bhima has worked<br />
tirelessly for Sera, the two have<br />
forged a friendship. They know every<br />
intimate detail of each other’s lives.<br />
They have shared each other’s joys<br />
and consoled each other. Their bond<br />
built little by little, in Sera’s home<br />
where, at meal times, Bhima must sit<br />
on the floor to eat.<br />
Thrity Umrigar’s beautiful novel, ‘The<br />
Space Between Us’ brings to light the<br />
Katie Spittle<br />
small everyday injustices inflicted<br />
on Bhima and the cumulative trauma<br />
this causes her. By juxtaposing her<br />
with Sera, her middle-class friend<br />
and employer, the contrast in their<br />
social positions serves to emphasise<br />
the powerlessness of living in poverty<br />
and the realities of different kinds of<br />
illiteracy. Umrigar reminds us throughout<br />
the novel of Bhima’s prematurely<br />
aging body, her callous feet and the<br />
air of damp in her skin, drawing our<br />
attention to how poverty, inequality<br />
and oppression leave their marks on<br />
the physical body.<br />
At the same time Bhima’s acceptance<br />
of her own degradation, the symbolic<br />
violence she is complicit with<br />
throughout the book, illuminates the<br />
dark and insidious effects of oppression<br />
in one’s own life. It is a powerful<br />
insight into the subjective and bodily<br />
experience of inequality, so much so<br />
that the space between individuals<br />
can remain painfully unbridged even<br />
in the longest and most intimate of<br />
friendships.<br />
The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu<br />
argues that ‘using material poverty as<br />
the sole measure of all suffering keeps<br />
us from seeing and understanding a<br />
whole side of suffering characteristic<br />
of the social order’. And here the<br />
power of Bourdieu’s research on ‘so-
cial suffering’ is how he unmasks the<br />
many, often taken for granted ways,<br />
in which social inequalities devastate.<br />
Because we often accept these they<br />
become normalised. The experience is<br />
difficult to think and talk about and<br />
to research and measure. It cannot be<br />
fully articulated because our systems<br />
of language and representation are inadequate.<br />
‘Sociology has<br />
always<br />
endeavoured<br />
to call<br />
attention to the<br />
invisible and<br />
unrepresented’<br />
While sociology has contributed to<br />
telling us about what social suffering<br />
is, there is still a struggle to research<br />
and represent it. Our only tool - it<br />
would seem - is to bear witness to its<br />
many and changing forms. But even<br />
this has its limitations. The problem<br />
the social sciences has with investigating,<br />
recording and describing unconscious,<br />
emotional and embodied<br />
experiences is not new.<br />
Sociology has always endeavoured<br />
to call attention to the invisible and<br />
unrepresented and those who are ignored<br />
or marginalised in the process,<br />
or as Sociologist Avery Gordon describes<br />
it ‘making the previously unknown<br />
known, telling new stories,<br />
correcting the official records’.<br />
There is of course much more to the<br />
lived experience of inequality. But it is<br />
perhaps in these latent and normalised<br />
aspects that we stand to learn<br />
the most from because they can disturb<br />
and challenge our understanding<br />
of banal everyday forms of power<br />
and oppression. And yet, it is hard to<br />
analyse an experience that is a spectre:<br />
To feel something is not quite<br />
right but not to be able to say what<br />
it is. It is perhaps what dark matter is<br />
to the physicist, there but frustratingly<br />
illusive.<br />
Katie Spittle finished her undergraduate<br />
degree in Sociology in 2018 and is<br />
now studying for her MSc in social research<br />
methods here at Goldsmiths.<br />
14
Passages<br />
Dr Nirmal Puwar<br />
Jean Mohr, an eminent photographer,<br />
well known for his collaborations<br />
with John Berger, passed away on 3rd<br />
November 2018, after a long period of<br />
illness, at the age of 93. Jean and his<br />
wife Simone visited us at Goldsmiths,<br />
alongside Miriam Said, to launch the<br />
exhibition ‘Space and Gaze’ (September<br />
2013 – July 2014) on 27th March<br />
2014, curated by staff and students<br />
from across the Sociology Department,<br />
Methods Lab. The materials on<br />
the wall, that brought us together,<br />
consisted of text by Edward Said and<br />
photographs from Jean Mohr, from<br />
their classic book After the Last Sky:<br />
Palestinian Lives (1986). They had chosen<br />
to compile the book after Jean<br />
Mohr was commissioned by the UN to<br />
take photos of some of the key sites<br />
in which Palestinians had lived. Because<br />
the UN allowed only minimal text to<br />
accompany the photographs, Said and<br />
Mohr decided to work together on an<br />
‘interplay’ in the book, as Said put it,<br />
of Said’s personal account of Palestinian<br />
suffering and exile and Mohr’s<br />
photographs – ‘an unconventional,<br />
hybrid, and fragmentary [form] of expression’<br />
- which they called After the<br />
Last Sky.<br />
We installed the exhibition in the<br />
Kingsway Corridor, a long passageway,<br />
framed by a continuous line of<br />
arches. Jean’s death reminds us of the<br />
15<br />
time he spent with us, his sharp eye,<br />
warmth and modesty. The passageway<br />
thronged with students, staff<br />
from the university and beyond, who<br />
had come to see, hear and be near<br />
Jean. He quickly became the observer<br />
as he snapped on his camera, turning<br />
the lens on those around him, discussing<br />
and looking at his photographs.<br />
<strong>One</strong> of his photographs was of a<br />
small girl taking a photo of Jean as he<br />
was taking an image of her. To us, the<br />
small group who worked on selecting<br />
photos and text from After the<br />
Last Sky (Annie Pfingst, Aisha Phoenix<br />
, Sameh Sahel), this particular image<br />
had special resonances, capturing Jean<br />
in the act of looking.<br />
Working against the grain of shortterm<br />
exhibitions, the Methods Lab<br />
chose to live and converse with the<br />
images and texts for the longer duration<br />
of an academic year, claiming<br />
the space for an alternative writing on<br />
the walls of the university. We had<br />
put the exhibition together on a shoestring<br />
budget. Aside from this public<br />
launch event, our programme of associated<br />
talks, screenings and lectures,<br />
was open-ended. Events snowballed<br />
as the exhibition took hold of the<br />
passageway.<br />
There were many interactions with<br />
the exhibition. We started our events
off-site, at the Mosaic Rooms, a partnership<br />
I and Mariam Motamedi Fraser<br />
(as Co-Directors of the Methods Lab)<br />
had built, with Mariam opening the<br />
event for two doctoral students,<br />
Dominika Blachnicka-Ciacek and Samah<br />
Saleh, whose fieldwork was in<br />
Palestine. A Sociology undergraduate<br />
student, Palak Roa, involved in the<br />
Student Palestinian Society, organised<br />
another event with a news photographer<br />
from Palestine. During the<br />
course of the installation, Visiting Research<br />
Fellow, Annie Pfingst screened<br />
films from Shashat, www.shashat.org,<br />
a women and cinema NGO in Palestine.<br />
Sameh Saleh, whose research is<br />
on women resisters in Palestine, gave<br />
Angela Davis a guided tour of the exhibition<br />
when she visited Goldsmiths<br />
for her honorary degree. Davis chose<br />
to prioritise her time on campus with<br />
students.<br />
It is interesting how visitors choose<br />
to inhabit campus life. Mohr chose to<br />
have a conversation rather than give<br />
a public annual lecture for the Methods<br />
Lab. Speaking of his position as a<br />
photographer he has said: ‘If I see a<br />
child drowning I can’t take a picture<br />
of the scene. I can lend a hand or grab<br />
a stick to remove the child.’<br />
Biographical note: Jean Mohr is wellknown<br />
for his many collaborations<br />
with John Berger, including A Fortunate<br />
Man (1967), Art & Revolution<br />
(1969), A Seventh Man (1975), Another<br />
Way of Telling (1995) and John by<br />
Jean: fifty years of friendship (2014).<br />
He has worked for numerous international<br />
organisations (UNHCR, ILO,<br />
JDC) and was ICRC delegate for the<br />
Middle East 1949-1950.<br />
Dr Nirmal Puwar is a Reader in the Sociology<br />
Department.<br />
16
Cities on Screen: The Garden<br />
Sophie Porter<br />
At the beginning of the academic<br />
year, Emily Ballard and I set up ‘Cities<br />
on Screen’, a film and discussion series<br />
designed to showcase documentaries<br />
that highlight issues pertinent to contemporary<br />
urbanism. It is intended to<br />
provoke discussion and awareness of<br />
various strands of the urban social experience<br />
and the different ways marginalised<br />
people respond to structural<br />
inequality.<br />
On 25th October, we held our second<br />
screening: Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s<br />
The Garden. It tells the story of the<br />
South Central Farmers, a community<br />
of land-workers taking a stand against<br />
the reclamation and redevelopment<br />
of the largest community garden in<br />
the US. Starting from the day the eviction<br />
notice was posted on the gates<br />
of the LA farm, the film follows the<br />
duration of the community’s campaign<br />
against the state to let them keep<br />
the land. As it unfolds, a complexity<br />
of corruption is unearthed, both<br />
in the senate and amongst opposing<br />
community groups, and rising tensions<br />
amongst the farmers encroach on the<br />
sanctity of the garden itself. The film<br />
addresses some key elements of urban<br />
inequality, particularly the precarious<br />
relationship between public and<br />
private space, and the ongoing effect<br />
of embedded social hierarchies.<br />
17<br />
To the farmers, South Central represented<br />
a large part of their identity.<br />
Predominantly tilled by first and second<br />
generation Latin American immigrants,<br />
the farm provided a space of<br />
continuity for the workers who used<br />
skills they had honed before they emigrated<br />
or that had been passed down<br />
to them by family members. It also<br />
supplied the community with a source<br />
of fresh food, which otherwise would<br />
have been inaccessible to them living<br />
on low incomes in an impoverished<br />
area of LA, as most of them were. A<br />
particularly memorable moment was<br />
when, trying to convey the relative<br />
significance of the garden, one of the<br />
famers, choking back tears, described<br />
it as just as sacred to the community<br />
as a temple or church.<br />
‘Standing for<br />
one’s right to<br />
the city is<br />
proving to be<br />
a powerful<br />
political move’
And, yet, the struggle continued. The<br />
message of the eviction was summarised<br />
well by one of the farmers in<br />
the early days of their action: ‘the<br />
land you are working is worth more<br />
than you as a collective’. The land,<br />
which had been designated for use<br />
as a community garden in response<br />
to the cultural oppressions embodied<br />
by the 1992 LA riots, was now considered<br />
to be too valuable to be wasted<br />
on a project with no wider financial<br />
gains; its community value accounted<br />
for nothing. An opposing activist<br />
group, Concerned Citizens of South<br />
Central Los Angeles, who were directly<br />
invested in the redevelopment<br />
project, went as far as to reject the<br />
collective’s claim to the community.<br />
This action is indicative of the<br />
entrenched prejudice experienced by<br />
the Latinx farmers, not only at a political<br />
level but also on the ground.<br />
Even though the land was being used<br />
wholly and fruitfully, the collective’s<br />
claim to it – and by extension, to the<br />
city – was deemed invalid. This is best<br />
exemplified by the statement given<br />
by the developer at the end of the<br />
farmers’ campaign: ‘they should say<br />
“this is a gracious country, thank you<br />
very much for letting us have these<br />
gardens”’.<br />
In spite of the politics, marginalisation<br />
and intimidation, the South Central<br />
Farmers continued to fight, to mobilise<br />
and stake a claim to the city.<br />
Although their action was ultimately<br />
unsuccessful, it is particularly significant<br />
at a time when the community<br />
intervention to save Old Tidemill Garden<br />
in Deptford intensifies by the day.<br />
In both instances, standing for one’s<br />
right to the city is proving to be a<br />
powerful political move.<br />
Look out for more information on future<br />
instalments of ‘Cities on Screen’<br />
and follow us on Twitter at #CitiesOnScreen<br />
Follow the progress of the Old Tidemill<br />
Garden intervention on Twitter<br />
@oldtidemillgrdn<br />
Sophie Porter is the Department Rep<br />
for Postgraduate Sociology and a parttime<br />
MA Cities and Society student.<br />
Her particular area of study is the<br />
relationship between a commodified<br />
housing market, homelessness and human<br />
rights. She is the co-founder of<br />
the ‘Cities on Screen’ series alongside<br />
Emily Ballard.<br />
18
“Peckham Rye Lane is alive with noise.<br />
Nigerian music blares onto the street<br />
from commercial spaces shared by<br />
hairdressers, groceries and film and<br />
music stores. Reggae keeps coffee<br />
seller’s spirits warm in the biting cold<br />
under the arches. Cars and lorries<br />
rumbling by. Schoolgirls link arms and<br />
sing as they walk. Outside Primark a<br />
busker plays a Miles Davis riff bursting<br />
into melody when coins are dropped.<br />
Piercing sirens scream cars out of the<br />
way. A South East Asian voice singing,<br />
entices passers-by, ‘Come inside! Very<br />
good price & quote! ’ Trains clattering<br />
overhead drown out the soft American<br />
music from a vintage shop/café…. Under<br />
Peckham arch, a group of around<br />
100 people wrapped in winter jackets<br />
gather in front of Peckham’s, not yet<br />
lit, Christmas tree. Family members,<br />
friends, localresidents and passers-by<br />
surround children from local primary<br />
schools. A microphone crackles into<br />
action and the amplifier now dominates<br />
the soundscape.”<br />
Does Durkheim’s (1915) view of rituals<br />
as activities that encourage cohesion<br />
in society through the worship<br />
of particular values apply in 2016 at<br />
a Christmas tree lighting ceremony<br />
in a public space in Peckham? Here,<br />
I present field notes from research I<br />
did during the Practicing Urban<br />
Ethnography course. Described as the<br />
19<br />
Sounds of the street<br />
Mike Danby<br />
‘frontline to gentrification’ by geographer<br />
Suzanne Hall, Peckham has experienced<br />
rapid urban transformation<br />
and social polarisation. Population<br />
density, diversity, transience, deprivation,<br />
infant mortality childhood obesity<br />
and health inequalities are all much<br />
higher than the English or London average.<br />
The area has received intense<br />
media and academic attention and we<br />
met many other university students<br />
‘researching the area’. Through various<br />
interactions I felt suspicion of our<br />
group, walking the streets talking ‘sociologically’.<br />
From these reflections<br />
I developed an interest in music and<br />
sound. I noted how the variety of encounters<br />
with music in Peckham contributes<br />
to how this diverse space is<br />
experienced and negotiated.<br />
‘the variety of encounters<br />
with music in Peckham<br />
contributes to how this<br />
diverse space is<br />
experienced and negotiated’<br />
Fieldnote examples:<br />
A teacher quietens chattering school<br />
children, and the crowd quietens as<br />
they start to sing… Silent Night… A<br />
break in traffic brings a sudden con-
trast from the buzz of noise just<br />
moments ago to the sudden unified<br />
sound of the singing; both literally<br />
and metaphorically a moment of harmony.<br />
The Peckham Theatre is a charity organisation<br />
engaging disadvantaged<br />
young people in music and theatre.<br />
A young black girl of about 11 starts<br />
the first verse of the theatre’s anthem,<br />
Labi Siffre’s ‘Something inside<br />
so strong’. A song inspired by the anti-apartheid<br />
struggle and a passionate<br />
evocation of the search for inner<br />
strength. The rest of the choir and<br />
many of the crowd join in singing<br />
‘The higher you build your barriers,<br />
the taller I become, the further you<br />
take my rights away, the<br />
faster I will run’.<br />
The last group who have remained<br />
separate from the crowd for the<br />
other performances, is the all-white,<br />
group of young adults. An older member<br />
introduces the group ‘We are the<br />
first year choir from the Mountview<br />
Academy of Theatre and Arts, we are<br />
very much looking forward to joining<br />
Peckham’s fantastic community with a<br />
new school right here.’ The conductor<br />
moves his arms, and the singing starts.<br />
All eyes fixed on the conductor, his<br />
upper body rocks and hands dance,<br />
flicking through the movements of<br />
the song. Faces contort as they accurately<br />
hit notes; someone steps onto<br />
tiptoes whilst pushing her body to<br />
project her voice. The singers seem to<br />
have become finely tuned instruments<br />
controlled by the conductor.<br />
Observing the different carol groups<br />
round the tree was a powerful illustration<br />
of the power of music to encourage<br />
cohesion within a group but<br />
also to differentiate the group from<br />
others.<br />
Peckham Theatre’s departure from<br />
‘traditional’ Christmas songs brought<br />
the community’s solidarity and struggles<br />
to the forefront of the ceremony.<br />
I enjoyed thinking with ears and beyond<br />
words. Music has power and<br />
force in so many aspects of everyday<br />
life. It deserves more sociological attention.<br />
Mike Danby graduated from Goldsmiths<br />
with a BA in Sociology in 2017.<br />
He now lives in Spain and<br />
works as an English teacher and researcher.<br />
He has been conducting primary<br />
research about what<br />
Brexit means to UK citizens living in<br />
and around Granada—with a particular<br />
focus on people under<br />
the age of 35—and blogging about his<br />
experience of moving to Spain, see<br />
brexitbritsabroad.com/talking-brexitwith-18-35-year-old-uk-citizens-livingin-southern-spain/<br />
20
Save Reginald ! Save Tidemill !<br />
Anita Strasser<br />
For the past year, I have been involved<br />
in the Save Reginald! Save Tidemill!<br />
campaign. The campaign is trying<br />
to stop the destruction of Tidemill<br />
Wildlife Garden and 16 flats in council-owned<br />
Reginald House in Deptford.<br />
Lewisham Council’s developers<br />
Peabody have planning permission to<br />
build 209 flats on this site, around<br />
half of which will be at ‘London Affordable<br />
Rent’ for new social tenants.<br />
Campaigners are keen to have more<br />
social housing, but at truly affordable<br />
rents and without the destruction<br />
of current community assets. Campaigners<br />
are also concerned about air<br />
pollution. Deptford has shown pollution<br />
levels six times over the World<br />
Health Organisation’s particle limits.<br />
A Goldsmiths study has demonstrated<br />
that Tidemill Garden mitigates air<br />
pollution by half.<br />
vacate the site by 24 October 2018.<br />
Despite launching an appeal, the occupiers<br />
were forcefully evicted by<br />
over 100 bailiffs and security guards<br />
on 29 October. Campaigners are not<br />
giving up though; for them this green<br />
community space and council homes<br />
are too important to lose.<br />
Campaigners asked for a community<br />
collaborative design process after an<br />
architect member of the group drew<br />
up alternative plans that would spare<br />
the garden and the council block. This<br />
was dismissed out of hand. When instructed<br />
to leave the garden by 29<br />
August 2018, campaigners decided<br />
to occupy it and launch a judicial review<br />
which questions the legality of<br />
the development. The application for<br />
judicial review was rejected by the<br />
court, and occupiers were told to<br />
21<br />
What I have found so inspiring about<br />
this campaign, apart from the sheer<br />
dedication and determination to fight<br />
for more sustainable and fairer development,<br />
is how campaigners and activists<br />
have used their artistic skills.
They have created promotional material,<br />
organised events and decorated<br />
and equipped the garden, which has<br />
helped to sustain hope and motivation<br />
despite the enormity of their struggle.<br />
They are creative and resourceful<br />
activists who have built tree houses,<br />
sheds, a functioning kitchen area and<br />
store room during the occupation,<br />
along with creating artworks, placards<br />
and banners to raise awareness. They<br />
have also used photography, video,<br />
music, performance art, and other<br />
media to support the campaign. The<br />
garden has been a major source of<br />
creativity and expression, as well as<br />
a place of friendship, care and community.<br />
As one campaigner remarked:<br />
“Tidemill Garden is part of the cohesiveness<br />
of Deptford”. It is also one of<br />
the last remaining green spaces in the<br />
area, providing locals with access to a<br />
bit of wildlife, nature and calm in the<br />
midst of a regeneration frenzy. Losing<br />
it would have devastating effects on<br />
the Deptford community.<br />
‘Tidemill Garden<br />
mitigates air<br />
pollution by half’<br />
As a local photographer and researcher,<br />
whose PhD researches the<br />
impact of gentrification on the local<br />
working-class population, I have been<br />
documenting the campaign, contributing<br />
my images and texts to help promote<br />
the campaign’s activities. I have<br />
also launched the blog Deptford Is<br />
Changing (www.deptfordischanging.<br />
wordpress.com) to raise awareness<br />
of campaigns, to highlight the impact<br />
of gentrification on local people, and<br />
to counter the stigmatising narratives<br />
of protesters, campaigners and working-class<br />
communities. The positive,<br />
creative and energetic attitude of<br />
people in Tidemill garden that believe<br />
in a fairer society and more sustainable<br />
future has really inspired me and<br />
the garden has become an invaluable<br />
green space for me too.<br />
You can read more about the campaign<br />
on Facebook: Save Reginald/<br />
Save Tidemill.<br />
Anita Strasser is an urban photographer/visual<br />
sociologist based in Deptford.<br />
She is currently in the 2nd year<br />
of her AHRC-funded PhD in Visual<br />
Sociology at Goldsmiths, studying<br />
the gentrification of Deptford and<br />
the impact this has on local residents.<br />
She works in Academic Support at University<br />
of the Arts London, supporting<br />
students on the MA Photojournalism<br />
and Documentary Photography.<br />
22
Writing to Fight: An Exploration into Creative Practice,<br />
Stigma and Mental Health<br />
Vanessa Bray<br />
Storytelling is a fundamental aspect<br />
of the social world. Our representations<br />
of lived experiences bridge the<br />
gap between the personal and the<br />
political, playing an important part in<br />
amplifying voices often unheard. My<br />
dissertation study was an account of<br />
creative writing by mental health service<br />
users, told through the prism of<br />
my own experiences as a researcher,<br />
actor and ‘survivor’ of the mental<br />
health system. I focussed on the issue<br />
of stigma, both internal and external,<br />
which permeates every area<br />
of an individual’s life and can be more<br />
damaging than a mental health condition<br />
itself. I wanted to investigate<br />
the relationship between creativity,<br />
particularly writing, and the attempts<br />
individuals make to manage and<br />
challenge stigma.<br />
I began with a literature review of my<br />
areas of interest, which at the beginning<br />
were broad. I knew I was interested<br />
in the processes and effects of<br />
stigma, the changing social construction<br />
of mental illness and the overlaps<br />
between the arts and therapeutic<br />
activity. The anecdotal evidence<br />
that artists were more susceptible to<br />
mental ill-health, or conversely that<br />
those with poor mental health gravitated<br />
towards the arts was something<br />
that I hoped would be addressed.<br />
23<br />
Overall, I found that contemporary<br />
studies on the links between well-being<br />
and the arts tended to be from<br />
a clinical or professional viewpoint.<br />
I wanted to draw out marginalised<br />
voices and stories as much as possible,<br />
told in an individual’s own words. I<br />
also wanted an outcome that reached<br />
out beyond an academic text.<br />
I devised a case study of the Dragon<br />
Café, a community organisation<br />
whose function is to empower those<br />
with mental health issues through<br />
arts-based activities. I am a member<br />
of their creative writing group ‘Writing-Works’.<br />
My research used mixed<br />
qualitative methods: samples of writing,<br />
semi-structured interviews, photographs<br />
and artefacts such as leaflets,<br />
table cloths, pens and coloured paper.<br />
Concentrating on one group and one<br />
material environment allowed me to<br />
gather rich and detailed data. I attended<br />
the groups weekly, taking notes on<br />
discussions and writing pieces alongside<br />
the participants. They had the<br />
option to write about anything they<br />
liked, stimulated by a weekly reading<br />
of literature, or they could respond<br />
to my suggestion to ‘write about writing’.<br />
I asked more in-depth questions<br />
about stigma during the interviews. I<br />
had 13 participants - 10 pieces of writing<br />
and 3 interviews. The photographs
and artefacts I collected with a view<br />
to turning the whole data set into a<br />
performance piece that I would present<br />
as the practical element of my<br />
dissertation.<br />
‘I wanted to<br />
investigate<br />
the attempts<br />
individuals<br />
make to<br />
manage and<br />
challenge stigma’<br />
After 3 months of fieldwork, I did a<br />
narrative analysis of the transcribed<br />
pieces of writing and interview texts.<br />
How writing had helped people ‘face<br />
up to the difficulties in life’ came<br />
through in several ways, as did various<br />
ways of coping with stigma, from<br />
hiding a condition to claiming the<br />
“label of artist” as opposed to that<br />
of “service user” (quotes from participants).<br />
I collated extracts that<br />
illuminated these themes and wove<br />
them into a theatrical script which I<br />
then learnt and performed. My previous<br />
years as a theatre actor came in<br />
handy! I staged the production using a<br />
chair, table (with spotty table cloth)<br />
and stationary as close to that of the<br />
Dragon Café as I could manage. The<br />
photographs I had taken of the individual<br />
handwriting of the participants<br />
and the signs that furnished the space<br />
I projected behind me onto a screen.<br />
The piece was performed at Goldsmiths<br />
and at the Dragon Café. Encouraged<br />
by the feedback, I have<br />
found that the piece has started a<br />
conversation about mental health<br />
and stigma amongst students and<br />
Dragon Café patrons alike. In the<br />
words of one of the participants:<br />
“Why do we write<br />
we write to fight<br />
we write to break the dismal night.”<br />
Vanessa Bray graduated from the MA<br />
Visual Sociology programme in 2018.<br />
She has undergraduate degrees in<br />
Acting and Combined Social Science<br />
and has worked as an Actor and a<br />
Mental Health Service User<br />
Consultant and Trainer.<br />
24
‘Time to wake up’:<br />
Collaging responses to neighbourhood change<br />
The table inside the white cube in<br />
Peckham Levels is piled high with materials:<br />
fabrics, cardboard, magazines,<br />
coloured paper, glitter paint, scissors,<br />
glue, lipsticks, false lashes, fake nails,<br />
nail polishes and weave. The Year<br />
Nine students from a local secondary<br />
school file into the room. They are<br />
here as part of their textile lesson.<br />
The installation #Hairytage, curated<br />
by artist and designer Alix Bizet, is being<br />
transformed over the week by the<br />
students – each workshop adding to<br />
the conversation and leaving its trace.<br />
Held against a background of illustrations<br />
by Ben Nugent, the photography<br />
of A-Level student Ria Addison Gayle<br />
and Autograph’s Exhibition in a Box,<br />
the workshops are a space for the<br />
students to tell stories and engage in<br />
the interwoven debates around their<br />
neighbourhood, gentrification, politics<br />
of Black hair, ideals of beauty and representations<br />
of people of colour.<br />
Louise Rondel<br />
The installation and workshops, part<br />
of the school’s Black History Month<br />
programme, were held in a former multi-storey<br />
carpark now converted into<br />
cafés, bars, galleries and co-working<br />
spaces in a neighbourhood undergoing<br />
rapid and co-constitutive physical and<br />
demographic changes. Living in, going<br />
to school and passing through the<br />
area, the students are acutely aware<br />
of these changes and how it impacts<br />
on them. As one student described<br />
‘more posh things are coming in’. She<br />
is perhaps thinking about the new coffee<br />
shops or places to eat opening<br />
along the high street or the fashionable<br />
hair salons which have appeared<br />
– described by a colleague as ‘the harbinger<br />
of gentrification’. An unverified<br />
rumour of Morleys’ closure hangs<br />
over the workshop. Emerging from<br />
Saturday’s Debate Cake, during which<br />
Year 12 and 13 students discussed<br />
what they love about Peckham and<br />
what it means to love a place, the<br />
rumour is literally written onto the<br />
gallery’s wall as part of the event’s<br />
documentation. True or (more likely)<br />
not, the concern amongst these 13<br />
and 14 year olds that it might be true<br />
is palpable.<br />
25<br />
Before we start crafting, we talk<br />
about the ways in which bodies and<br />
places shape or, indeed, make one an-
other. We talk about Peckham’s Afro<br />
hair salons which are being closed<br />
down and relocated to ‘the backside<br />
of Peckham’ as part of a heritage project<br />
to restore the station to its ‘Victorian<br />
splendour’. I ask the students<br />
to think about the hair and beauty<br />
salons to which they might go, asking<br />
why they go there, what they like<br />
about the salon and what would it<br />
mean for them, the other customers,<br />
the hairdressers and beauty therapists<br />
and the community if that salon was<br />
to be closed. I ask them to think<br />
about the message they might send<br />
to the local council, the planners or<br />
the developers.<br />
lashes are carefully stuck on in perfect<br />
arches, a splurge of blue glitter<br />
paint makes a shimmering ocean, nail<br />
polish is painted onto the page in ever<br />
darkening shades to create a swatch.<br />
At last, hands that have been itching<br />
are able to move towards the materials;<br />
cardboard is distributed, magazines<br />
are opened, scissors hunted for<br />
amongst piles of fabric and the distinctive<br />
smell of nail polish fills the<br />
room. Sitting round the craft table<br />
is at once a shared and an individual<br />
experience. Scissors, glue stick and<br />
ideas are shared and passed between<br />
neighbours and across the table. At<br />
the same time, amongst the chatter,<br />
crafting allows space for quiet reflection,<br />
for concentration and for seeing<br />
what happens through experimentation<br />
with the materials: figuring out<br />
how to stick fiddly false nails onto<br />
cardboard; what does it feel like to<br />
write with lipstick, how to attach a<br />
strip of hair, do I even want to touch<br />
it? The materials take over: false<br />
26
As the students get caught up in the<br />
tactile power of the materials, messages<br />
emerge. Some relate to the<br />
closure of shops and salons: ‘#leavepeckhamalone’,<br />
‘don’t let them close<br />
down the beauty shops’ ‘don’t close<br />
Peckham Rye salons’, ‘time to wake<br />
up’. Some, with a spray of perfume<br />
as a finishing touch, attest to the<br />
transformative power held within<br />
the salons. Another affirms that ‘my<br />
beauty is black, #selflove’, a striking<br />
and powerful message in a climate in<br />
which the salon spaces where this is<br />
most reinforced are being eviscerated.<br />
With thanks to Alix Bizet and Clare<br />
Stanhope for inviting me, and especially<br />
to Year 9 textile class for your<br />
imagination and engagement.<br />
Louise Rondel is a PhD candidate in<br />
the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths.<br />
Her research examines the<br />
co-constitutive relationships between<br />
bodies and cities and, in particular, she<br />
explores London’s beauty industry,<br />
following people and products to and<br />
through the beauty salon. With an<br />
emphasis on the vibrant materialities<br />
of the industry, Louise is interested in<br />
how a physical engagement with matter<br />
can enliven our sociological imaginations.<br />
27
28
yellow by Oluwatoyin Sonubi<br />
days where I feel good about myself are far and few between<br />
but when I do I always end<br />
up in a park sitting then<br />
lying on the green soft grass<br />
I look to sun, bright and all<br />
over. It is a star and as I<br />
watch her warm and guide our<br />
days I feel myself adopt her warmth and guidance as I find<br />
my way to my bed I lie<br />
down and stare at the moon the<br />
moon like me adopts the sun’s<br />
shine for the night. every night<br />
and so do I. and as these<br />
warm days and kindred nights<br />
become closer closer they become<br />
every day every night. and those brief<br />
moments I feel not yellow<br />
but blue, I remind myself that<br />
once I felt like I swallowed a<br />
star and the more I see the star<br />
the easier blue days are to swallow<br />
Oluwatoyin Sonubi is a third-year BA Media and Sociology student.<br />
They are primarily interested in Arts and Culture, specifically identity<br />
and community. They enjoyed journaling and poetry at school but<br />
their passion for creative writing flourished at university.<br />
29
Department Research Centres: The Methods Lab<br />
Interview with Dr Rebecca Coleman – Co-Director of Methods Lab<br />
What is Methods Lab?<br />
Kat Jungnickel (the other Co-Director of<br />
Methods Lab is a research centre within the Methods Lab) and I are keen to connect<br />
the Methods Lab with what students<br />
the Sociology Department. It was established<br />
over ten years ago and aims to of visual sociology are interested in. <strong>One</strong><br />
draw together the wide range of people series we’re running this year is called<br />
who work with methods in what we call ‘How to do sociology with...’ where we<br />
live, sensory and inventive ways. This understanding<br />
of methods sees the social objects, devices and atmospheres that we<br />
will explore different materials, media,<br />
worlds that we study as lively, dynamic work with. The first workshop is on glitter<br />
and sensuous and therefore that methods<br />
need to also be and do these things. endar for more details)—we’ll work with<br />
(28th November - see the college cal-<br />
Methods Lab provides spaces for people glitter to consider what it does, materially<br />
to work collaboratively with sociologists and affectively. We will ask how we might<br />
and other academics, and also artists, curators,<br />
and other creative practitioners. these might do to sociological research.<br />
cultivate methodologies with it, and what<br />
This involves workshops, talks, screenings There will be further workshops in this<br />
and exhibitions.<br />
series later in the year. We’ll also have<br />
the Methods Lab Annual Lecture in May,<br />
and some other workshops and seminars<br />
as well.<br />
What have you learnt about methods from<br />
being in the department?<br />
I’ve learnt a lot, both from being a<br />
post-graduate student in the department<br />
in 2000-2005 and more recently<br />
as a member of staff. The department includes<br />
many people - staff and students<br />
- working with/on visual, sensory and digital<br />
sociology and developing new ways of<br />
approaching the social world in conjunction<br />
with more traditional methods, such<br />
as interviews and ethnography. <strong>One</strong> thing<br />
I’m constantly thinking about then, is how<br />
new approaches link or fit with these older<br />
approaches. Another thing I’ve learnt is<br />
that it is productive to reflect on methods<br />
themselves - rather than seeing methods<br />
as tools, it’s interesting and important<br />
to make them the centre of our thinking<br />
and analysis.<br />
What are some of the things that the Methods<br />
Lab will be doing this year?<br />
In what ways has the Methods Lab enhanced<br />
your sociological imagination?<br />
Because the Methods Lab aims to provide<br />
a platform for collaborative and interdisciplinary<br />
work, it has made me reflect on<br />
the boundaries of sociology, and what sociology<br />
might learn from other disciplines<br />
or creative practices. So in terms of the<br />
sociological imagination, I try to ask myself<br />
what is sociological about what the<br />
Methods Lab is doing. Often, this means<br />
asking about the similarities and differences<br />
between various approaches - for example,<br />
how does what artists or designers<br />
do connect with what sociologists do?<br />
What is distinctive about what sociologists<br />
do?<br />
Aliya Moobe is the second year of her BA<br />
Sociology with Criminology.<br />
30
CALENDAR<br />
Here are some hand-picked events and activities which might interest you.<br />
We implore you to research them and to also explore other events, activities,<br />
screenings and exhibitions to keep you thinking. - split mag editorial<br />
Activities<br />
Revolutionary women film festival | 8TH DEC| brunei gallery<br />
Feminist life drawing |dec 11th | the feminist library<br />
GIFTLAND LATE NIGHT| Dec 13th |129 SHACKLEWELL LANE<br />
LONDON ART FAIR 2019 | 15TH JAN<br />
M.Y.O Peckham<br />
The Good Life Centre<br />
barbican conservatory | sundays only<br />
Exhibtions<br />
Hooked | Science Gallery London<br />
Late at tate britain: truth |tate britain | 7th dec<br />
sacred feminine: the art of the goddess | the british musuem | 8th dec<br />
Stolen! how, when and whY? | royal academy of arts | 11th dec<br />
Zine club x RISO induction | print collective | 17th dec<br />
art is part of the equation | royal academy of arts | 22nd dec<br />
egon schiele:death and the maiden | royal academy of arts | 18th jan
Goldsmiths Events<br />
Dit Accompli: Non-Native Speakers in US Police Encounters | talk| Goldsmiths<br />
rhb 300a |4-6pm | 5th dec<br />
cITIES ON SCREEN: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth | screening | goldsmiths rhb137a | 6-8pm<br />
| 6th dec<br />
Liberalism as a Way of Life: on the Spiritual Exercises of John Rawls | talk |<br />
deptford town hall 109 | 6-8pm | 10th dec<br />
The Strange Case of Anneliese Kohlmann: Queer Desire in the Concentration<br />
Camps | TALK | GOLDSMITHS RHB 137 | 5-7PM | 13th dec<br />
Talks<br />
THE PSYCHOLOGY OG POVERTY | 7TH DEC | UCL Division of Psychology & Language<br />
ROXANE GAY IN CONVERSATION | 10TH DEC | ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL<br />
Mass Consumption of Refashioned ClotheS | 9th jan| SOAS KHALILI LECTURE THE-<br />
ATRE<br />
Lawrence of Arabia: Romantic, Orientalist, and Western Cultural | 19th dec |<br />
the british academy<br />
WAR |15TH JAN | NEW ACADEMIC BUILDING<br />
Psychoanalysis and Feminism: Beauvoir, Irigaray, Kristeva, Butler |26th jan |<br />
freud museum london<br />
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Celeste Williams<br />
‘Reflective Cultural Dissociation’