The performance of swimming: disorder, difference and marginality within a publicly-accessible pool

Abstract

ABSTRACT The environment of a publicly-accessible swimming pool has rich potential for exploring the fluidity of shared space and how cultural practices coalesce around the performance of swimming. This study highlights the underlying disorder within one pool (‘The Edge’) at the University of Leeds and identifies how swimmers are managed through the use of swimming categories and via a continuous reorganisation of space to suit the swimmers’ apparent needs. On the surface, this system creates an appearance of order, but a deeper investigation reveals the tension between swimmers, issues of power and accessibility, conflicting swimming approaches and culturally specific communication which does not easily translate from one group of swimmers to another. The study has also found that the pool is uncomfortably positioned between a consumerist model of customer satisfaction and a ‘commons’ model. Finally, an extended ethnographic study of this micro-setting has demonstrated its multivalent qualities where norms, expectations and resistance to hegemonic practices are located in an environment which has resonance with the concept of third space.