Race, place and the seaside

RACE,

PLACE

AND THE

SEASIDE

DANIEL BURDSEY

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

i

Endorsements

“Burdsey masterfully excavates the seaside as a sociological site. His

engrossing study of racialisation reveals fl uidity and complexity in the

ways people identify with, are included in, and excluded from English

seaside space.”—Steve Garner, Birmingham City University, UK.

“Burdsey’s book off ers us grounded sociology in the best sense. It

engages with such cultural beliefs and contests the racialisations embed￾ded within them; he off ers up instead a social justice critique through his

model of ‘coastal liquidity’. Burdsey demonstrates how the seaside can be

a place for new voices, and new values. An intelligent and ethical book

of interest to all cultural geographers, and those interested in thinking

through the pervasive and everyday incarnation of ‘race’.”—Sally Munt,

University of Sussex, UK.

“Burdsey takes us through a compelling, conceptually and empirically

rich sociology, of why the seaside—a local, global, imagined, material,

contested, inviting, dangerous, pleasurable, violent and lovely edgeland—

is a place where race gets practiced and projected and where belonging

and attachment are enacted. Burdsey deftly reminds us of two things:

fi rst, the importance of the spatial in the politics of race; and second,

why the seaside is signifi cant in social and personal life.”—Sarah Neal,

University of Surrey, UK.

ii Endorsements

“Questions of race and racism have often been limited to discussions

of Britain’s big cities. However, as Gurinder Chadha pointed out in her

fi lm Bhaji on the Beach the seaside—at the edge of the political terri￾tory—is a rich and evocative place to understand how racism can co-exist

with convivial multiculture. Like a latter day Orwell, Daniel Burdsey’s

sensitive and insightful book off ers us a vivid set of sociological postcards

from the coast that aids us in understanding the changing cartographies

of racism today.”—Les Back, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK.

“Th is is an engaging and insightful exploration of a very ‘British’

place—the seaside. Burdsey’s critical gaze vividly captures the ebb and

fl ow of the seaside as a space of encounter and transition, encompassing

processes and experiences of belonging and exclusion, negotiation and

fi xity, amusement, violence and death. It is ‘our Island story’ told from its

edges.”—Claire Alexander, University of Manchester, UK.

“Drawing on nearly a decade of rich sociological enquiry, Race, Place

and the Seaside is a groundbreaking study that highlights the signifi cance

of race and ethnicity at the seaside. Daniel Burdsey weaves together

multiple perspectives and scales, from lived experience to geopolitics, to

present an important alternative reading of the English seaside linked

to racialised notions of belonging, exclusion, and identity.”—Alice Mah,

University of Warwick, UK.

“Th is is a superbly crafted book exploring racism and ethnicity in

coastal areas. Far from being stable and homogenous, English seaside

locations are revealed as transnational and thoroughly racialised sites of

belonging. Th rough the idea of ‘coastal liquidity’ Daniel Burdsey fi nely

illustrates how multiculture, whiteness and racism ebb and fl ow, holding

out the potential to confi gure these places anew. Th e eff ect is that Race,

Place and the Seaside will make us approach these leisure spaces diff er￾ently. It allows us to critically refl ect on the prevailing practices of beach

culture and begin to see seaside towns as much more than the dilapidated

faded English resorts they are often purported to be.”—Anoop Nayak,

Newcastle University, UK.

Race, Place and the Seaside

Daniel   Burdsey

Race, Place and the

Seaside

Postcards from the Edge

ISBN 978-1-137-45011-1 ISBN 978-1-137-45012-8 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-45012-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016940982

© Th e Editor(s) (if applicable) and Th e Author(s) 2016

Th e author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identifi ed as the author(s) of this work in accordance

with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Th is work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether

the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of

illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and trans￾mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or

dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

Th e use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication

does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant

protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

Th e publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book

are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or

the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any

errors or omissions that may have been made.

Cover illustration: © John Devin / Alamy Stock Photo

Printed on acid-free paper

Th is Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

Th e registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London

Daniel   Burdsey

School of Sport and Service Management

University of Brighton, UK

For Holly and Alex

My days at the seaside are always more fun when I am with them.

ix

Th e seaside is a mysterious place. Even the seemingly bland, everyday,

ordinary British seaside, most of us know of and some of us love, holds

many secrets hidden from view.

Th is is despite the proliferation, over the past quarter of a century, of

seaside research by varied academic tribes, journalistic reportage, popular

general seaside histories, or specifi c case studies, and increasing attention

from government and associated bodies in terms of research, policy for￾mation, and funding.

Sometimes, the problem is with a grand concept or theory that, when

fi rst launched, the seaside research community applauds, but that sub￾sequently obscures rather than reveals. On other occasions, infl uential

studies ultimately straightjacket because they are caught in a moment of

time or off er a partial, limited analysis of some theme or topic.

As an academic, I’ve been thinking and writing about the seaside and

exploring places betwixt land and sea—on the edge—for four decades.

While I’ve had immense enjoyment and satisfaction from the activity, I

have also concluded that while we know a fair amount, and have some

fascinating insights about what was or now is, our knowledge and under￾standing is incomplete and inadequate. Such, perhaps, is our lot when

trying to make sense of the real, complicated, changing, varied world on

the edge. It is also, however, that we do not have conceptual tools that are

good enough to improve our understanding of the seaside.

Foreword

x Foreword

In this book, Daniel Burdsey makes three outstanding contributions

to addressing these and related concerns.

Th e fi rst is simply the scope of his intellectual endeavour. Th e book is

the product of extraordinarily wide reading and deep thought. Of course,

he draws on, and synthesises, the ever-growing literature of what has

become known as “seaside studies.” But he also, appropriately and boldly,

goes into other arenas and areas of knowledge that have not, before, been

applied to the British seaside.

Th e results are a revelation, especially so when he explores a var￾ied literature and set of ideas around “race, racialisation, and racism,”

strangeness, confl ict, exclusion and inclusion, dominant and margin￾alised imaginations, and diff erent types of place and space. Although a

sociologist, Daniel understands the intricacies of seaside geographies. For

example, there is a fi ne comparative section on the beach as a site of racial

confl ict in the USA, Australia, and South Africa, and this is comple￾mented, in his case study of one English resort, by valuable and original

insights into how minority ethnic residents use the beach in their home

town.

As he argues, the British seaside literature has largely been blind to

questions of race and ethnicity. In part, this is because so many academics

and other commentators have seen the seaside as essentially white. But,

it is also because no one before Daniel has had the wit to pose the ques￾tions he asks.

A second contribution that (perhaps, literally) fl ows from the depth

and breadth of his seaside understanding is the concept of “coastal liquid￾ity.” Seaside social relations and spaces are fl uid, dynamic, and indefi -

nite. Coastal liquidity, Daniel says, is “a way of challenging, and writing

against, static portrayals of the seaside.” Th e seaside is not stationary

or monolithic. Th ings change, places change, people change, commu￾nities change, relationships change: “coastal liquidity encourages us to

acknowledge the contested pasts, the messy and unfi nished presents, and

the uncertain futures of seaside and coastal places.”

Daniel puts coastal liquidity to work in the last three substantial chap￾ters in the book. Th ese present the results of his empirical research on

race in one contemporary English south coast resort. Given the fi ctitious

Foreword xi

name “Sunshine Bay,” the resort was fi rst enjoyed by Daniel during child￾hood day trips three decades before this book was written.

Daniel presents and discusses the testimonies of minority ethnic resi￾dents living in Sunshine Bay. Th ese men and women are of diff ering

ages, origins, and backgrounds, and had diff erent ways of journeying to

their lives in the town. Th e individual narratives are compared and con￾trasted to explore processes such as community formation, notions of

exclusion, inclusion and belonging, and the multicultural changes that

have occurred in Sunshine Bay over the past decade.

Th e testimonies are revealing and engrossing, sometimes distressing

and sometimes empowering. Th ere are fears and hopes, anxieties and

excitements. And through the words and thoughts of the participants in

the research, this particular seaside place is revealed in vivid and changing

detail. Some of the participants—and this, no doubt, is, in part, down

to Daniel’s empathetic and sensitive approach to the interviews—dem￾onstrate their own keen sociological, geographical, and seaside imagi￾nations. But, through his use of the coastal liquidity concept, the sum

becomes much more than the individual narratives.

Having read this book, it will be diffi cult for other researchers and

writers to ignore issues of race at the seaside. I’ve started to think about

how coastal liquidity, race, and place inform some of my own current

seaside interests. For example, in the case of arts and cultural regeneration

at the contemporary British seaside, the analysis rarely explores explicitly

issues of race. It should do. Again, coastal liquidity can help develop my

continuing fascination with the use of exotic representations and motifs

at the seaside—best revealed in the use of real and artifi cial palms in so

many exterior and interior resort spaces.

At the end of the book, Daniel writes there is more to be done. He

sketches his next ambitious steps in the intellectual project, which is

coastal liquidity. I hope others will join him on a journey to understand

other seaside towns, and also, in due course, to return to Sunshine Bay.

Fred   Gray

Brighton, UK

xiii

As a sociologist interested in popular culture, identity, space, and place,

and as someone who has lived for so long near the sea, my decision to

write a book about the seaside was arguably inevitable. Th e English sea￾side is a site, and frequently a sight, with which I am deeply connected:

historically, materially, emotionally, aff ectively, and intellectually. “You

can take the boy out of the seaside, but you can’t take the seaside out of

the boy,” and all that.

For all but four of my 40 years (during which time I studied at univer￾sities in large cities in the English Midlands), I have lived in the seaside

town (indeed, since 2000, city ) of Brighton. Offi cially, the town became

the unitary authority of Brighton and Hove (actually) in 1997; but, as I

will attempt to explain to anyone who will listen, the two places are quite

distinct, and it is Brighton that I call home. For the past 12 years, my

workplace has been the University of Brighton’s campus in Eastbourne,

another seaside town approximately 20 miles east along the Sussex coast

from where I reside.

Many of my childhood memories revolve around the seaside. I am not

sure whether my family simply did a lot of things at the seaside or those

memories are just the happiest or most vivid. It is probably a combination

of the two. Looking back on family photographs, I certainly look very

happy, although as John Urry (2006) points out, it is our cheery experi￾ences at the seaside that we are most likely to commit to photograph (and

Pref ace

xiv Preface

now, I would guess, fi lm on a smartphone), rather than our unhappy

ones. Various experiences stand out: Summer evenings swimming in the

sea and attending crazy golf birthday parties at the King Alfred leisure

centre in neighbouring Hove, bracing winter walks under the cliff face

at Rottingdean (including the time when I cried because my favourite

woollen dungarees with an elephant picture on them got wet and made

my legs itch), looking for fossils in Dorset, and a Burdsey- created beach

“mini-Olympics” on the Isle of Wight. Th e edginess of the amusements

at the Peter Pan playground and the arcade machines on the Palace Pier

in Brighton were a great attraction to me and my older brother—he pre￾ferring Kung Fu games and shoot ’em ups, and I, cars, bikes, and sport

contests. In January 1980, the 300-feet Greek merchant ship, Athina B ,

ran aground on Brighton beach close to the Palace Pier. Afternoon trips

down to the seafront to gawp at this unlikely intruder on the pebbles were

a real treat. Watching my Grandad leave his prosthetic leg (having lost

his real one during the Second World War) on the beach in Angmering

and hop into the cold Sussex sea was also a source of pride and amaze￾ment (and one of amusement too). Th e historical smells and tastes of

the seaside are memorable: the salt water, the sickly sweet candy fl oss

and doughnuts, the suntan cream, the warm plastic of infl atable dinghies

(see Dann and Jacobsen 2003, on tourist “smellscapes”). Sometimes, we

would get a cone of chips to eat or a bag of pick ‘n’ mix sweets. More

often than not, it was (and still is) one of my mum’s legendary picnics

(particularly her egg sandwiches and fl apjack) that provided sustenance.

During my latter teenage years, the seafront was more about the night￾time economy of Brighton’s bars and nightclubs. As an adult, the seafront

is now a place to walk and jog. Despite running in some of the world’s

most beautiful environments (in my opinion), I still rank the westward

plod between Brighton Marina and the pier on a sunny early morning as

one of the best routes around. I also enjoy repeating the things I did as

a child with my young niece and nephew: looking in rock pools, drop￾ping tuppences into “waterfall” arcade machines, and eating ice-creams.

Additionally, there are the “hide and seek” games between and behind the

beach huts at Hove: narrow gaps ideal for small people to get between,

but too tight for their uncle to follow them down!