ABSTRACT
In Cornwall the issue of space figures prominently in broader social dynamics: only seven miles wide at its narrowest point in the far south-west, served by a single main road. Small fishing villages frequented by tourists easily become blocked by traffic as the number of visitors in peak season clashes with the marketed image of romantic rural and coastal remoteness. Alongside, a boom in holiday rentals and permanent and temporary incomers has resulted in many people priced out and living outside towns that were previously the locus of the community. In this chapter, Frears and Hodsdon reflect on the way space functions at case study events as reflection of, and reaction to, this broader socio-spatial tension. Using interviews and observational data, they analyse how space figures within the events both physically and affectively – through the physical surroundings of the event and through different people’s reactions to that space. Overall, spatial experiences of the same event vary between insiders and outsiders, and ethical participation entails a self-reflectiveness that, although these events take place in a shared public space, others may have more claim.
