ABSTRACT
The attraction of the concept lies in its grounded mobility. This twinning of seeming opposites is one of the centrepieces of Will Straw’s (2001, p. 248) version of the concept: ‘“scene” seems able to evoke both the cozy intimacy of community and the fluid cosmopolitanism of urban life’. A similar sentiment informs our approach. When we describe a place as a scene, we are trying to capture the experiential attractions rooted in the on-going public life of its businesses, people, places of worship, activities – in the particular mix of concrete practices happening here. At the same time, these meanings are not exclusive to this place; we can find them elsewhere, even if to different degrees and in different combinations. To investigate scenes, in our conception, is to ask what is in the character of this particular place that may speak to broader and more universal themes?
