Integrated Knowledges, Integrated Publics: Classificatory Practices, Boundary Crossings, and Public Space at The Hive, Worcester
Keywords: observer, ethnography,creative writing, participant-observation, publications, staff briefings, library, public realm, West Midlands, academic realm
Thesis was a multi-layered ethnography (one year intensive with multiple catch-up visits over 4 years) of a joint-use academic and public library which used lived methods (including dwelling, doodling and ficto-critical description) to examine shifting conceptions and productions of space around hard and soft classifications (public/academic, belonging/non-belonging, private/public, valued/not-valued). The ethnography situated my experience as a “shy researcher” (albeit one with Shy Pride) and developed doodle practices that emphasised inhabiting (the library’s) rhythms rather than—necessarily—directly interacting with it.