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“Make Mates, Sort Drugs”: The Use and Meanings of Mobiles in Club Culture Karenza Moore

“Make Mates, Sort Drugs”: The Use and Meanings of Mobiles in Club Culture Karenza Moore. Introduction: Mobile Clubbing Communities? Studying the Mobile Studying Club Culture and ‘Clubbing Communities ICTs, Identities and Experiences Studying the Mobile in Club Culture Meanings and Belongings

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“Make Mates, Sort Drugs”: The Use and Meanings of Mobiles in Club Culture Karenza Moore

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  1. “Make Mates, Sort Drugs”: The Use and Meanings of Mobiles in Club CultureKarenza Moore Introduction: Mobile Clubbing Communities? Studying the Mobile Studying Club Culture and ‘Clubbing Communities ICTs, Identities and Experiences Studying the Mobile in Club Culture Meanings and Belongings Conclusions

  2. Mobile Clubbing Communities • Community-specific content for particular ‘pre-existing’, ‘interest driven’ and ‘event-created’ communities (MEA 2004) • MEF community initiative 2002 • Yakara (Edinburgh): “m-groups”, ‘Clubber friends’ • Commercially-based communities? • Notion of ‘community’ contested in social sciences (Anderson 1991, Delanty 2003, Lash 1994, Maffesoli 1996)

  3. Studying the Mobile • Technological artefact, shifting meanings, i.e. status, mundane, ‘indispensable’ (Green 2002), ‘futuristic’ (Moore 2004) • Interpretative flexibility (Lohan 2000), anti-essentialist, technologies part of social world rather than force acting on ‘social’ • SCOT and ANT: Critique of TD • Associations between ‘mobiles’, ‘young person’ and ‘clubbers’

  4. Studying Club Culture and ‘Clubbing Communities’: Part 1 • Clubbing popular leisure activity (1 in 2 16-24 year olds regularly attend, Mintel 1999) • 4 million young people go clubbing, half are dance drug users (Home Office 2001) • £10million on ‘pills’ in UK each week (NCl Intelligence S 2003) • Drop in ecstasy, coke rise (Mixmag 2001) • Sense of self, identity, identifications, ‘belongings’ (Malbon 1999) • “Ravers” “Clubbers” (Thornton 1995)

  5. Studying Club Culture and ‘Clubbing Communities’: Part 2 • Important development in youth culture (Measham et al 2001, Redhead 1997) • Concentration on substance use (Finch 1999, Parker et al 1998), pathways to drugs/clubbing (Coffield and Gofton 1994), harm reduction strategies & normalisation (Boys et al 2000, Measham et al 2001) • Gender, ethnicity and sexual identity • Limited work on digital leisure techs/ICTs

  6. ICTs, Identities and Experiences: Part 1 • Research on ICTs/digital leisure techs usage and meanings by certain social groupings i.e. gay men, internet and mobiles (Green et al 2002) • “Queer enough attitude” (Roseneil 2000) • Synergy, “All Nations, All Persuasions” • Production and maintenance of clubbing-related identities through ICTs; chat-rooms • Mobiles; ‘gather social contacts’ ‘randoms’

  7. ICTs, Identities and Experiences: Part 2 • Digital technologies role in dance music and club culture: production/consumption • Sony’s ‘Noiseupthesuburbs’ campaign, bedroom-based music production • Production through consumption? Home taping (Willis 1990), bedroom DJ-ing, subcultural capital (Thornton 1995) mediated through leisure technologies (i.e. decks, vinyl, FX) • Technologies relate to ‘spectacular spectacle’ of clubbing, but what of ‘mundane’ technologies? i.e. digital cameras, identity enactment?

  8. Use of digital cameras in club culture: ‘The DJ’ (Riot! London)

  9. Use of digital cameras in club culture: ‘The Crowd’ (Crasher, Sheffield)

  10. Use of digital cameras in club culture: ‘The Hug’ (Pure Filth, Manchester)

  11. Use of digital cameras in club culture: ‘Playfulness and Performers’ (Federation, Leeds)

  12. Studying the Mobile in Club Culture • Spectacular aspects of clubbing based on mundane social practices, some of which mediated by ICTs including mobile • Data collection ongoing, began Sept 2002 • Snowball sampling (Atkinson & Flint 2001) • 54 respondents to 8 section questionnaire • Average age 23, 24 female/30 male, lifetime and past month use of dance drugs • Field notes from 18 nights out (PO), reflexivity • All respondents live and work (or students) in North-West of England (Manchester, Sheffield) • Pre-club, in-club, post-club and ‘real-life’

  13. Procuring illegal substances All bar one used mobile Pre-club not in-club Voice not text (‘evidence’) Mobile not home phone (respect to others) Perception of risk shaping meanings of mobile (as ‘personal’ technology, both less and more ‘risky’) Implicated in illegal activity, ecstasy class A Organising clubbing nights out All used mobile (voice and text) Group texts (pre-existing communities?) Fluid nature of meeting times and places (frustration) Countering ‘pre-club nerves’ through text Lack of interest in commercially-based leisure organisation (i.e. LBS, but logos n ‘tones) Meanings and Belongings: ‘The Mobile’ and ‘The Clubber’

  14. Mobile’s role in-club and post-club Valued device, cloakroom Demonstration of social networks when in-club Mobile implicated in clubbers’ experience of clubbing and urban space Fluidity of mobile meaning: undermining and safeguarding personal safety (gender) Creation of personal space in-club (contacting absent friends, texting when ‘coming up’, ‘mission’, finding lost friends!) Creating and maintaining clubbing friendships 48 of 54 had contacted ‘random’ 24 through voice/text, 21 through text only, 1 through voice only (2 no response) Exchanging numbers, technologically-mediated demonstration of ‘friendly vibe’ Prevalence of text; less intrusive and ‘threatening’ (gender) Management of awkwardness post-drug consumption (re-assertion of social divisions?) Meanings and Belongings: ‘The Mobile’ and ‘The Clubber’

  15. Conclusions • Usage in different clubbing spaces (pre/in/post) • Meanings fluid (i.e. safety), may shift with time (picture phones) and demographics (gender) • Clubbing-related identity mediated in part through use of technologies (production/consumption) inc mobile • Spectacular ‘hands-in-air’ aspects of clubbing related to mundane social practices some mediated through (digital) leisure technologies • Club-based communities problematic for mobile industry (illegal activities? Pre-existing?) • Clubbing campaigns: ‘Dance Safe’ text messages? • Thank you! Please contact k.moore@salford.ac.uk

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