Prof Steve Pile

The aim of this project is to explore the lived politics of life in the city. This life, in our project, is understand as a complex set of negotiations between the open and closed dimensions of the city. These negotiations never take place in social or political vacuum. yet, the open and closed dimensions of the city are, as yet, simply a set of categorical statements about what city life may - or may not - be like. There has been no detailed or sustained empirical investigation of the "hypotheses" contained within the idea of the Open City. More than this, the Open City carries with it a political injunction: the good city is an open city. We wish to understand whether this is the case. More than this, we want to understand how people negotiate the opennesses and closednesses that inevitably comprise their lives. The Open City cannot be prescriptive, but it can begin to unravel the complex lived politics - the real lived experience - of the open and closed dimensions of city life. More than this, it can indicate where the lived strategies and tactics of open/closed life create conflict and tension. And where they proffer new experiments in the conduct of city life.

Stoke-on-Trent, famous for its pottery industry, has its past written into the cultural and material landscape of the city, resulting in a peculiarly haunting backdrop to the familiar story of urban industrial decay. In recent years Stoke City Council has tried to reinvigorate the region, drawing on this industrial heritage and redesigning Stoke as a vibrant and youthful city of culture. However, the emphasis on its pot-based past hides another important aspect of Stoke’s cultural heritage, a thriving historical and contemporary Spiritualist movement. The project aims to uncover this hidden legacy, exploring the role of Spiritualism across the lifecourse in people’s everyday lives. A key part of the project is to hold an exhibition at the Gladstone Museum exploring the historical and contemporary role of Spiritualism in the city. Materials gathered through the research (including photography, video, audio and material artefacts) will be used to create a lasting legacy that records this hidden heritage, whilst also serving as a space for opening up a conversation around the role of spirituality in people’s everyday sense of wellbeing.