Urban informality: the production of informal landscapes of musical performance in Sydney

Abstract

In Sydney, a variety of informal spaces of musical production and performance exist, from autonomously-organized public performance spaces, to top-down, hierarchical, closed spaces, and any number of configurations in between. Are these informal spaces an enactment of progressive rights to the city? Do they contribute to gentrification and urban renewal processes? This thesis critically interrogates the urban politics of these different expressions of informality in the Sydney music scene. Following McFarlane and Waibel (2012), I consider informality as a multi-dimensional concept that can be conceived of in four ways: spatial categorization, organizational form, governmental tool, and negotiable value. In my own contribution to the literature, I seek to understand the relationship between informality and the State, based on these criteria. Drawing upon an ethnographic study of several informal performance spaces and events in Sydney, I have devised a typology of informal spaces. These are: (1) informal spaces, (2) informally formal spaces, and (3) formally informal spaces. This typology allows us to differentiate between the urban politics of different kinds of informality in globalizing cities, in order to understand which processes subsume informality into neoliberal modes of urban governance, and which processes aim to create more socially just cities.