Dr Chloe Steadman and co-author Dr Anna de Jong have been researching atmospheres of belonging, exclusion, and processes of territoriality at Manchester’s craft beer festivals. Anna Gardner, our blog editor, recently interviewed Chloe about her work.
I understand that your recent work investigates atmospheres of belonging. Could you explain what this means to geographers?
There is growing literature around ‘affective atmospheres’ within both geography and other disciplines such as sociology and marketing, which – in short – explores people’s affective, emotional, and multisensory experiences of spaces and places. A number of different themes are evident in this bourgeoning area of research, such as atmospheric design, how memories inform atmospheres, and how to best research atmospheres. But, what we identified in a broader research project I have been conducting with Dr Anna de Jong into belonging at craft beer festivals, is that atmospheres are not just a passive backdrop of our experiences in places; rather, they also have the power to both include and exclude, which is what we mean by the term ‘atmospheres of belonging’. More specifically, we were interested in looking further at Allen’s (2006) concept of ‘ambient power’, which foregrounds how the ambient design of places can make certain social groups feel excluded, despite on the surface perhaps seeming to be quite a welcoming and open space.This concept is the focus of our forthcoming book chapter, and geographers could find it useful when researching experiences of (not) belonging within other spaces and places.
This work was based on Manchester’s craft beer festivals. What was it like to do academic research on such informal and fun events?
Yes, I think research within these sorts of sites can certainly provide elements of fun! However, I think that Anna and I perhaps didn’t anticipate from the outset the extent to which we might personally feel excluded within craft beer festivals, as we both had past experiences of other drinking-related events and spaces. When we first began the research, we were particularly interested in the gendered aspects of belonging at these events due to our own positionality, and also since Anna had in past work spoken to female brewers about their experiences working in the often male-dominated industry. But over time, it became very apparent that multiple identity positions intersect with belonging at craft beer festivals, such as social class, age and ethnicity, as well as people’s memories – and anticipations of – such events. And so being reflexive about our positionality, and how that had informed our understandings of the craft beer festivals we studied, was important during the research.
What have you found out about inclusion and exclusion at urban festivals?
A key research finding is that urban events, such as craft beer festivals, are not fixed as either inclusive or exclusive, and experiences of belonging are therefore not pre-determined. Rather – taking our focus of the book chapter – since atmospheres change over time and space, feelings of belonging can equally fluctuate. For example, Manchester’s Victoria Baths, the venue hosting the Indy Man Beer Con (one of our case studies) is a very interesting space. It is a Grade II listed building comprising a labyrinth of different rooms and passageways, with each festival (micro)space having different multi-sensory elements, such as music styles, colours, lighting, decorative elements, and so on. And so, moving through the festival space, you could feel the atmosphere changing, which in turn produced differing feelings of inclusion and/or exclusion. Another key finding from our work, is that craft beer festivals are not spatially nor temporally bounded; but they are part of a broader interweaving network of other craft beer events and venues spreading across cities like Manchester, and increasingly into online spaces. This means belonging at urban festivals is not just impacted by the goings-on within the time and space of the event itself; but is also informed by things like broader discourses around craft beer knowledge, and pre-event attendee anticipations, based on memories of past drinking occasions.
How might we craft more inclusive urban atmospheres in the future?
This is a tricky one! I don’t think our research offers a magic bullet to ensuring everyone feels a sense of belonging at urban events such as craft beer festivals, which is very difficult to achieve – although evidently very important. So we would definitely encourage further research on this topic within geography in the future, and hope our work in some way helps to stimulate further reflection on how place atmospheres can intersect with urban belonging. However, what we did find is that some social groups, such as female-only craft beer groups, were able to come together during the Indy Man festival to create their own pockets of belonging within the broader event space. And the Pilcrow Pub, the former venue of the Summer Beer Thing (our other case study), facilitated an element of belonging from the outset, as some local residents from Manchester were involved in crafting some of its interior (e.g. wooden beer pump handles). So providing people with opportunities to participate in creating atmospheres and experiences in urban events and spaces is important in moving towards more inclusive urban atmospheres in the future.
Dr Chloe Steadman is a Lecturer in Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Whilst her background is in consumer research, her research is interdisciplinary in nature, drawing on fields such as consumer research, marketing, geography, and sociology to explore the topics of consumer culture, the body, time, place, atmosphere, and qualitative methods. Chloe and her colleague, Dr Anna de Jong (University of Glasgow), have recently been researching themes of belonging and inclusivity, most recently looking at atmospheres of belonging through Manchester’s craft beer festivals, as well as the processes of territoriality informing inclusions and exclusions at such events.