LTP084N Dissertation Research Proposal 07000184

Table of Content
Page

i) Preliminary Review of the Literature 3-5

a. Jaimangal-Jones, D. Pritchard, A. Morgan, N. (2009). Going the
distance: locating journey, liminality and rites of passage in
dance music experiences.
b. Todorović, M. Bakir, A. (2004). Inaudible Noise: Belgrade‟s
Academy Club: Old Locals and New Spaces
c. Goulding, C. Shankar, A. (2004). Age is just a number. Rave culture
and the cognitively young “thirty something”.
d. Bader, I. Scharenberg, A. (2009). The Sound of Berlin:
Subculture and the Global Music Industry
e. other
ii) Gap in the Literature, Research Aim(s) and Questions Arising 5
iii) Phenomenon, Aims, Scope and Research Philosophy 6
iv) Strategy for Proposed Methodology 7
v) Research resources and timescale (Appendix) 10
vi) Bibliography 10
vii) Appendices 11

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LTP084N Dissertation Research Proposal 07000184

“Pop-up nights: East London’s Warehouse phenomenon – the success of

temporary venues for underground dance music events"

The research aims at establishing the factors that create successful events1 in relation to the
booming phenomenon of warehouses as venues for underground dance music events.

i) Preliminary Review of the Literature

Nothing has been found that fully and specifically relates to the reason for which event organizers
chose warehouses are preferred venues for their parties in the East London area. However, a
number of considerably relevant journals and books have been written in studies for sociology,
human geography, applied anthropology, social psychology and ethnography, about the youth and
subcultures, liminal places, underground identity and dance music. Furthermore, several books
contain theoretical and practical explanations regarding events organization, marketing and
management, but nothing specifically focuses the type of events to be treated in this research.
Moreover, they all look at events from a very business / financial viewpoint, which might not
necessarily be the right one in our case. Some newspaper articles from music journal have also
been taken into consideration, despite their partial credibility.
All sources are multidisciplinary, although the disciplines they draw their work from are often very
closely related to each other (e.g. sociology and anthropology), and range from 2004 to 2009.

a. Jaimangal-Jones, D. Pritchard, A. Morgan, N. (2009). Going the distance: locating

journey, liminality and rites of passage in dance music experiences.
The article analyzes the experiences connected with dance music spaces – in particular the
meaning of the journey that participant undertake to reach festival or rave destinations and the
implication it has on self-identity, social group belonging, the meaning of space and a spiritual and
ritual feeling attached to the trip itself.
The research undertook a reflexive anthropological approach, including participant observation,
filed trips, focus groups and interviews.
Although not completely related to the chosen topic, the article provides the researcher with some
useful concepts:
 Neo-tribes, post-modern tribes and clubbing tribe, as temporary communities that are
formed at raves base on lifestyle and sense of belonging.

1
The term “event” here is used to define nighttime events that happen during club nights time, but as they do
not happen in clubs, are here mentioned simply as “events”. “Underground dance music” specifies the type
of events.

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LTP084N Dissertation Research Proposal 07000184

 Special meaning of spaces, applied to temporary places where festivals and raves are
held, but that can be easily applied to the concept of pop-up nights in warehouses.
 Liminal places, as places that serve to fulfill youth culture by pushing boundaries of
society.

b. Todorović, M. Bakir, A. (2004). Inaudible Noise: Belgrade’s Academy Club: Old Locals
and New Spaces.
The article is about the transformation of spaces for „underground‟ forms of leisure in Belgrade –
venues where the underground scene meets and enjoys non-mainstream music. The main focus is
on the Academy club, which represented the biggest impact on the scene.
The conceptual framework of the study stems from political economy, discourse analysis,
semiotics and ethnomethodology. The authors carried out ethnographic research through
interviews and participant observation on a purposive sample mainly between 2001 and 2002.
From the research it emerged that the creation of such spaces was very much linked with the
political situation of the country during the 90s, in which strong identities emerged linked to the
underground scene and the sense of membership through a set of aesthetic rules and codes of
creative connoisseurship directly linked to music and physically resident in the Academy. Finally
the current trends show a come back of such spaces, although in a smaller and more “ad hoc”
basis, but which attracts a similar crowd to the one once attracted by the Academy. Despite the
economic situation can‟t provide great support to the creative industry, those new spaces appear to
rely on a relative stability.

c. Goulding, C. Shankar, A. (2004). Age is just a number. Rave culture and the cognitively
young “thirty something”.
The article analyze the relationship between raves – a concept usually associated with the youth
culture – and a segment of the population that falls into the 30-40 age group. The paper is an
inductive research into consumer behaviour and rave experiences developed over three stages –
observation of behaviour in the first phase, then interviews, and finally an essay describing each
one of the participant‟s experience.
The authors‟ finding demonstrate how chronological age might not be an appropriated
segmentation technique as a section of the population between 30 and 40 expressed their
extremely positive feelings about going out and enjoying the night the same way as groups aged
up to 30. The analysis culminates with the emergence of a new consumer group aged 30-40,
brand conscious, disinterested towards family creation and settlement, sensation seeking / leisure
oriented, materialistic and able to cope with a double life shared between a day job with high
responsibility, and a weekend life of fun and relaxation.

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LTP084N Dissertation Research Proposal 07000184

d. (Bader, I. Scharenberg, A. (2009). The Sound of Berlin: Subculture and the Global Music
Industry.
The article investigates the links between specific urban environments of Berlin and the rise and
development of its creative and subcultural society. The idea of “underground” and “rebellion” still
constitute a strong marketing advantage for Berlin, despite it not been originated on purpose.
The research is a case study based on empirical qualitative fieldwork through participant
observation and interviews of 20 administration employees from both major and independent
companies in the formalized music industry and from the more informal club scene between 2001
and 2005.
The research outcome confirmed a pre-existing thesis that cities in crisis are the background for
the phenomenon of cultural innovation and the acquisition of new once abandoned spaces by the
emerging artistic subculture. On the other hand it contrasts another pre-existing theory by which
cultural innovation is closely linked to positive economic situation.

e.

ii) Gap in the Literature, Research Aims and Questions Arising

From the literature analyzed thus far, it appeared that there is a gap in the literature related to the
chosen topic. All sources are linked either to the sociological and cultural aspect of alternative
spaces and dance music, or to the broader theory about event organization and management;
nothing relates to the two aspects combined, least of all aims at defining a practical model for
successful event in those alternative spaces such as warehouses and alike.
The research thus aims at finding the reasons that lie behind the choice of warehouses as venues
for underground dance music events in the East London area to finally depict a model or guide to a
successful event in alternative, pop-up spaces.
Five questions arose from the preliminary analysis of the literature:

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LTP084N Dissertation Research Proposal 07000184

1) What is the "warehouse phenomenon" in East London and how do people inside the industry
define it.
2) Why do underground dance music event organizers decide to re-locate their events in
warehouses or similar improvised and temporary spaces.
3) What defines and determines the success of those events: money earned / profit from the night;
amount of people attending the event; exposure to the local scene and notoriety in the industry; big
names willing to become residents djs at the event; other possible definition to be determined
throughout the course of the research.
4) Is there any reasons for which warehouses might be deemed more appealing to clubbers - thus
to organizers - than real clubs.
5) Can a model be outlined as a successful formula to organize underground dance music event in
warehouses.

iii) Phenomenon, Aims, Scope and Research Philosophy

The aim of the research is to deeply investigate the booming phenomenon of underground dance
music events organized in warehouses or other similarly alternative spaces in the East London
area at present times. The purpose of this work is to contribute to the existing literature by defining
a phenomenon that is rooted back in time but which has a completely new meaning at present
times and constitute a mainstream concept in the contemporary underground music scene that is
dominating the London‟s East End. Furthermore, by defining “successful” from the organizers point
of view and identifying both the rationale for organizing events in those alternative spaces and the
motivations for revellers to attend those events – rather that going to regular clubs – a comparison
between these two aspects can be drawn in order to manage a consistent comparison and finally
outline a realistic and useful model or paradigm for the achievement of successful events in
warehouses.

As the author – and some newspapers - has noticed in the past four to five years, a considerable
number of dance music events have been re-located from clubs into warehouses or dismissed
underground and rail galleries spaces. Although this phenomenon had been previously seen both
in London and in other cities such as Berlin, Detroit or Manchester, in the alternative or
underground music scene during the 80‟s and 90‟s, the area of the London‟s East End has seen a
revival of this phenomenon, specifically in relation to techno and house related music genres (tech-
house, minimal-tech, deep house, new disco). The reasons however might not be completely
related to a particular political or economic situation - as it happened to be in the above-mentioned
cases – but a new set of motivation lies behind this comeback phenomenon.

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LTP084N Dissertation Research Proposal 07000184

The research will be limited to the area of East London - more specifically Shoreditch, Dalston and
Hackney - as this area is the background to the booming phenomenon of warehouses.
The study will be carried on two parallel levels. The first one is the level of event organizers,
promoters and event brand owners that decide which venue is suitable for their events and thus
will be answering questions in semi-structured interviews about what are the reasons for this re-
location and what are the differences from clubs or other spaces, as well as advantages and
disadvantages of such choice.
On the second level there will be the other side of the event: the revellers, or people attending the
event, which will be both interviewed a few times following semi-structured patterns, and observed
while taking part to those events. All interviews will be recorded and transcribed, while notes will be
taken during participant observation.
Other than primary data, also secondary data – related to the experience of going to club nights or
similar events - will be used during the analysis firstly to allow the drafting of preliminary questions
to gain a broad understanding of the environment in which the author will be operating, and
secondly to compare and contrast the answers given by revellers.

iv) Strategy for Proposed Methodology

Data will be collected and analyzed through qualitative fieldwork research methods.
Notwithstanding quantitative research reports facts in an objective and more value-free manner,
such “value freedom” in social sciences could be hardly achievable and even undesirable.
Flexibility and the importance to identify the position of the researcher are factors required when
researching into sociological matters. Quantitative research excludes the observation of consumer
psychology and behaviours, besides being areas of social realities that cannot be measured by
statistical means. Moreover, qualitative research can provide a much deeper understanding of
social phenomena (Silverman, 2000) and according to Kelly (1980) “the method corresponds with
the nature of the phenomenon being studies – that is leisure is a qualitative experience” (Veal,
2006).
Although part of the research will look at some marketing and event management perspectives by
defining success and ultimately a model for successful events, the fact that the events taken into
consideration are part of the leisure industry and closely linked to a particular music genre and
youth subculture give is the rationale for keeping the qualitative approach.
In addition, qualitative research is more appropriate also due to limited time resources combined
with the need to gain deep understanding of a non-scientific and non-exact field.
The research methodology will follow an inductive ethnographic reflexive anthropological approach
- “where the researcher also constitutes a tool and resource in the research process” (Davies,
1999 in Dewi Jaimangal Jones et al., 2010:255) – proceeding from the observation through
analysis to explanation - based on interviews, focus groups and participant observation (Veal,

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LTP084N Dissertation Research Proposal 07000184

2006). Ethnography – a branch of anthropology involved with the study of a population‟s cultural
habits - has been proven to be an effective approach to gain a better understanding of the revellers
experience of events (Holloway, 2010).
Data will be observed as well as self-reported, as this latter technique has the disadvantage that it
cannot guarantee respondents‟ accuracy. Thus both methods will be adopted to guarantee better
consistency.
Although a high level of validity is hardly achievable when doing empirical research, as it deals with
people‟s s and attitudes, comparison with previous similar studies will help to get over this issue;
similarly, the comparison will provide a better level of reliability to the research, even though the
previous literature taken into consideration for this focuses on slightly different issues.
The following data collection techniques can be adopted to answer the research questions:
 Observation
Observation can take four forms - structured or systematic, unstructured or naturalistic, contrived
and participant observation. Of those one only the last one is suitable to this research. “The
researcher becomes a participant in the social process being studied” (Veal, 2006:202). Blending
with the population that is part of or is itself the phenomenon to be studied, being integrated in the
group and living like its participant provides the observer with a very deep and peculiar knowledge
of the topic analyzed. Furthermore, it gives a mean by which the researcher can compare the
actual behaviour of a subject with the answers the subject might have given in an interview – which
are affected by perceptions, and can differ a lot from the reality.
On the other hand, joining a group may prove to be harder than expected when dealing with close
groups. Moreover, the researcher is faced with the issue of whether to join the group stating its real
position or pretending not to be a researcher (Bell, 2005).
In this research observing revellers in their own environment - when they‟re free to express
themselves without the feeling of any pressure - and taking part in their activities will provide a
great source of information and deep knowledge of the sociological and cultural aspect of the
research. Comparison with interviews outcomes will then help with data validation (or will raise new
issues).
 Interviews
According to Kvale (1996:14) interviews are “an interchange of views between two or more people
on a topic of mutual interest, sees the centrality of human interaction for knowledge production,
and emphasizes the social situatedness of research data”.
Interviews can be either in-depths or in group (focus group). Usually involving very small group of
people or only one respondent at a time, interviews are often used when the sample is small, when
the information is likely to be very different from one respondent to another, and when a further
wider study is planned ahead (to gain preliminary understanding).

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LTP084N Dissertation Research Proposal 07000184

The interview can require the researcher to follow a very particular set of rules as in topics that
must be covered in a certain order without any digression – in the case of structured interviews –
or follow an almost completely free pattern where topics are to be covered without a specific order
and no script – in the case of unstructured interviews. Semi-structured interviews fall in-between
these two. A further type is non-directive interviews, where the interviewer has no pre-planned
questions or plans, and simply listens to the interviewee who in this case leads the conversation.
The advantages of unstructured and semi-structured interviews are linked with the confidence that
the interviewee gains with the interviewer, thus more information might be obtained (Kvale, 1996).
Conducting interviews requires training and skills as questions have “[…]dual goals of motivating
the respondent to give full and precise replies while avoiding biases stemming from social
desirability, conformity, or other constructs of disinterest.”( Hoyle, Harris, Judd, 2002:144).
Interviewing revellers in an unstructured way over time should give them the confidence to freely
express their opinion and feelings about the topic. Event organizers will be interviewed a semi-
structured pattern as the questions they will be faced with are less sensitive and can be asked in a
more structured way.
 Focus groups
In focus group the researcher has the role to facilitate the conversation between group members
who will discuss about a given topic. They do not differ too much from interviews apart from the
fact that respondent interact with each other.
The advantage is that through focus groups members are stimulated by each other and new
insights on the issue may be discovered which otherwise would have remained hidden (Veal,
2006).
In the preliminary phase of the data collection, focus group will be used to gain a broader and
overall understanding of how the environment is like and whether there are issues to be
considered when thinking of the interviews for the second phase both with the revellers and with
the organizers.

All three above mentioned methods will be used during the research – focus groups at the
beginning and interviews and participant observation during the core part of the data collection
process. The choice for the combination of three methods stems from the fact that each one can
give a different set of information about the same topic and at the same time comparison can be
made among them to validate data, developing triangulation. Furthermore the literature provided
both interviews and participant observation data from previous similar studies, thus comparison will
be possible between primary and secondary data collected in similar ways, again allowing for data
validation.

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The research will be conducted over a three months period, ideally between April and June, (see
Resource Timescale in Appendices) on a purposive sample of 10 event organizers and between
10 and 14 revellers.

v) Research Timescale and Resource Requirements (Appendix)

vi) Bibliography
 Bader, I. Scharenberg, A. (2009). The Sound of Berlin: Subculture and the Global Music
Industry. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. Vol.34(1), 76-91.
 Bell, J. (2005). Doing Your Research Project. 4th edition. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
 Flich, U. Von Kardoff, E. Steinke, I. (2004). A companion to Qualitative research. London:
Sage Publications Ltd.
 Goulding, C. Shankar, A. (2004). Age is just a number. Rave culture and the cognitively young
“thirty something”. European Journal of Marketing. Vol.38(5/6), 641-658.
 Holloway, I. Brown, L. Shipway, R. (2010). Meaning not measurement. Using ethnography to
bring a deeper understanding to the participant experience of festivals and events.
International Journal of Event and Festival Management. Vol.1(1), 74-85.
 Hoyle, R. H. Harris, M. J. Judd, C. M. (2002). Research Methods in Social Relations. London:
Thomson Learning, Inc.
 Jaimangal-Jones, D. Pritchard, A. Morgan, N. (2009). Going the distance: locating journey,
liminality and rites of passage in dance music experiences. Leisure Studies. Vol.29(3), 253-
268.
 Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An Introduction To Qualitative Research Interviewing. London:
Sage Publications Ltd.
 Silverman, D. (2000). Doing Qualitative Research. A Practical Handbook. London: Sage
Publications Ltd.
 Silverman, D. (2004). Doing Qualitative Research. Theory, Method and Practice. 2nd edition.
London: Sage Publications Ltd.
 Smith, F. Haralambos, M. Holborn, M. (2000). Sociology Themes and Perspectives. London:
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
 Sommer, S.R. (2001). C’mon to my house: Underground-House Dancing. Dance Research
Journal. Vol. 33(2), 72-86.
 Todorović, M. Bakir, A. (2004). Inaudible Noise: Belgrade‟s Academy Club: Old Locals and
New Spaces. Leisure Studies. Vol.24(4), 415-434.
 Veal, A.J. (2006). Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism. A Practical Guide. 2nd edition.
London: Pitman Publishing.

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 Watt, D.C. (1998). Event management in Leisure and Tourism. Malaysia: Pearson Education
Ltd.

vii) Appendices
Resources
Laptop
Camera (also used as video recorder)
Tape recorder
Literature on subject
Revellers willing to cooperate
Events organizers willing to take part in interviews and to allow me in their events to observe
Time to complete data collection and observation

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