Creels and catenary wires
Creating community through winter lights displays
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2391245 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julia Bennett (0000-0003-3216-4424, Department of Social and Political Science, University of Chester Faculty of Social Science, Chester, UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 246-263 |
| Publication date | 2023-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Material Culture (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/13591835221089547 |
| OpenAlex | W4220797257 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 35 |
Lighting up darkness is a material practice shared across many cultures. Lighting up winter darkness is a particular concern in urban areas in order to make urban spaces feel safer and more welcoming. Temporary lights, often characterised as 'Christmas' or 'Winter' lights, are installed over the darkest period of the year (December in the northern hemisphere) in town and city centres to attract shoppers and tourists. This paper examines the lights displays installed over the Christmas/ New Year period in two British towns. In each case the lights are installed by volunteers, who also arrange a 'switch on' community celebration. The research argues that the architecture of the lights signifies and reinforces the identities of the communities involved. In particular, the paper examines: the importance of infrastructure for the ongoing creation of community; the creative potential of these temporary structures for community identity; and the essential materiality of community
Aesthetics · Art · Identity (music · Materiality (auditing · Period (music · SAFER · Sociology · Visual arts · Geographies of human-animal interactions · History · Religious Tourism and Spaces · Urban Planning and Governance · Architecture
Vibrant Matter
How Societies Remember
Modernity at large
Fair framings
Blackpool Illuminations
Christmas in the ‘Valley of Praise’
Actor-Network Theory and Methodology
Reconfiguring Familiar Worlds with Light Projection
Light design and atmosphere
Staging atmospheres
Cultures of lights
Walking with light and the discontinuous experience of urban change
Light festivals, policy mobilities and urban tourism
Pushed to the margins of the city
Social infrastructure and the public life of cities
The Myth of Community Studies
Making space for 'the social
The Ritual Process. Structure and Anti-Structure
Streetlighting in England and Wales
The Human Experience of Space and Place
The spark, the spread and ethics
The Ethnography of Infrastructure
After the cultural turn
An Anthropology of Luminosity
Lively Infrastructure
Out of Order
Why Everyday Life Matters
Illuminations, Class Identities and the Contested Landscapes of Christmas
The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |