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Paper Short Abstract:

The aim of this proposition is to establish a dialogue between pogo punk and roller derby, both of which reconfigure the use of the bodies of practitioners and researchers. In both cases, the acceptance of intimate proxemics strengthens the sense of community and challenges the society of the spectacle.

Paper Abstract:

In ethnographic research, the body is the privileged interface between the researcher and his social actors. Fieldwork also involves shaping the researcher's body. As part of his research into punk culture in the Franche-Comté region, Sacha Thiébaud has joined a music group and regularly goes to concerts to ethnograph dance of pogos. For her part, Orlane Messey has begun observation with a French roller derby team. Our studies through these two ‘alternative’ practices brought us face to face with a particular use of the body, that of a ‘proxemia’ of the intimate (Hall, 2014 [1976]).

In our “society of the spectacle”, whether in music or sport, the collective effervescence expressed through physical contact contrasts with the immobility of spectators. Accepting contact with strangers was seen as a prerequisite for integration. Nevertheless, each of these body cultures has its own way of operating. On the punk scene, physical proximity appears to be a way of breaking away from an individualistic society and strengthening the bonds of solidarity. In roller derby, it's the link between proxemics and the question of gender that goes hand in hand with a reversal of feminine stigmas, such as the promotion of body bruises.

Finally, whether we're talking about punk or roller derby, this proxemia also extends backstage, particularly in the toilets of music venues or the changing rooms, which provide spaces for observing how these cultures function. These observations call into question the limits, both spatial and physical, of the field and of ethnographic engagement.