Paper short abstract:

The paper analyzes the local queer scene and gay culture in Hamburg. By comparing different forms of dwelling in public and private space it shows how settings and strategies of living as well as collective and personal identities are constructed

Paper long abstract:

Within cultural anthropological constructions of space the city has been sketched since the Chicago School as a "laboratory for social processes of every kind".

The Hamburg district of St. Georg in the geographic center of the city has been characterized as a gayspace for decades: a physically manifested area of the gay community, which has a high concentration of bars, clubs, but also cafes and restaurants as public spaces. Here, the urban gay community creates a space where different identity concepts can be expressed. The focus of the analysis lies on those lifestyles, in order to capture places in their nature as well as their dependence on social groups. The specific urban development in this area is characterized by a manifestation of queer consumer structures, jobs and forms of life as a structure of a physical practice that finds expression and realization here.

The paper is an ethnographic fieldstudy about the local queer scene and gay culture, public spaces and individual homes in the city of Hamburg. By analyzing the fluffy retrostyled Cafe Gnosa - a traditional public space and hotspot of the scene - the research aims to define settings and strategies of homemaking besides home. This place is not only a Restaurant but also an informal cultural institution and community center. Different actors of this "extended home" give examples how collective and personal identities are constructed and connected with a local cultural identity. Furthermore a closer view on personal material objects of dwelling shows how these can represent elements of identity.