Doctor of Philosophy / This ethnography is based on fieldwork in two very different cities, Hong Kong and Sydney. It traces the movements of subjects from Hong Kong through the analysis of differing modes of inhabiting urban space. The texture of lived spaces provides an analytic focus for examining a highly mobile migrant group. This ethnography explores the mesh of objective structures and migrant subjectivities in a mobile field of migrant ‘place’. A basic assumption of this study is that people from Hong Kong have acquired a common array of dispositions attuned to living in a specific environment. Hong Kong’s dense and challenging urban space embodies aspects of the singular historical ‘production of space’ underpinning a colonial entrepôt that has expanded into a major global economic node. The conditions of lived space are examined through an historical analysis of urban space in Hong Kong and an ethnographic analysis of spatial practices and dispositions. The sprawling spaces of suburban Sydney clearly differ sharply from that of Hong Kong. Interview accounts of settling in Sydney are used to investigate the ‘gap’ in spatial dispositions. Settling entails both practical accommodations to new and unfamiliar localities and an interweaving of cultural and ideological elements into the expanded everyday of migrant subjectivity. Language and speech are integral to spatial practices and provide means of referencing and evaluating ongoing social relations and trajectories. The ‘discourse space’ of interview accounts of settlement in Sydney and movements back to Hong Kong are closely examined, yielding an array of perceptions and representations of different, and contested styles of urban life. All the senses are brought into play in accounts of densities and absences in people’s everyday worlds. At the same time this thesis provides a perspective from which to interrogate contemporary interpretations of ‘transnational’ migration, suggesting the need for an analysis grounded in a specific economy of capacities and dispositions to appropriate social and symbolic goods.

Doctor of Philosophy / This ethnography is based on fieldwork in two very different cities, Hong Kong and Sydney. It traces the movements of subjects from Hong Kong through the analysis of differing modes of inhabiting urban space. The texture of lived spaces provides an analytic focus for examining a highly mobile migrant group. This ethnography explores the mesh of objective structures and migrant subjectivities in a mobile field of migrant ‘place’. A basic assumption of this study is that people from Hong Kong have acquired a common array of dispositions attuned to living in a specific environment. Hong Kong’s dense and challenging urban space embodies aspects of the singular historical ‘production of space’ underpinning a colonial entrepôt that has expanded into a major global economic node. The conditions of lived space are examined through an historical analysis of urban space in Hong Kong and an ethnographic analysis of spatial practices and dispositions. The sprawling spaces of suburban Sydney clearly differ sharply from that of Hong Kong. Interview accounts of settling in Sydney are used to investigate the ‘gap’ in spatial dispositions. Settling entails both practical accommodations to new and unfamiliar localities and an interweaving of cultural and ideological elements into the expanded everyday of migrant subjectivity. Language and speech are integral to spatial practices and provide means of referencing and evaluating ongoing social relations and trajectories. The ‘discourse space’ of interview accounts of settlement in Sydney and movements back to Hong Kong are closely examined, yielding an array of perceptions and representations of different, and contested styles of urban life. All the senses are brought into play in accounts of densities and absences in people’s everyday worlds. At the same time this thesis provides a perspective from which to interrogate contemporary interpretations of ‘transnational’ migration, suggesting the need for an analysis grounded in a specific economy of capacities and dispositions to appropriate social and symbolic goods.

Cette thèse étudie la scène théâtrale et ses transformations dans le contexte socio-politique de Téhéran entre 2009 et 2019 à travers le prisme de la spatialité (Lussault, 2007). Cette période se caractérise d’un côté par l’éclosion de nouveaux espaces de représentation de diverses natures architecturales, urbaines et institutionnelles et, de l’autre, par l’apparition de nouvelles formes d’investissement et d’appropriation d’espaces urbains à des fins théâtrales par les artistes et spectateurs. Pour interroger ces mutations, cette étude analyse trois cas– représentatifs du théâtre privé, du théâtre Off Stage et du théâtre Underground – à partir d’une approche théorique qui conjugue social production of space et social construction of space (Low, 2017). Ce faisant, la présente thèse démontre qu’au-delà des dimensions esthétiques et dramaturgiques, les évolutions de la scène théâtrale à Téhéran se traduisent surtout par un changement qui touche à la spatialité urbaine du théâtre. Cela se concrétise d’une part dans la transformation de l’agencement spatial du théâtre dans la ville et, de l’autre, dans les manières dont les relations et dynamiques sociales et politiques de la ville se spatialisent dans le théâtre. Du fait de ce double processus, et dans la conjoncture socio-politique tendue et changeante du Téhéran des années 2010, l’espace théâtral, jusqu’alors quasiment cloisonné et exclu de la sphère publique, émerge en tant qu’espace public. Il devient ainsi non seulement le lieu du politique, là où se rencontrent différentes forces politiques et sociales (Balme, 2014), mais aussi l’élément principal dans les dynamiques de pouvoirs entre elles. Sa production en tant qu’entité architecturale et urbaine, son occupation, son appropriation et même ses caractéristiques et frontières sociales, symboliques et discursives font alors l’objet de luttes, débats, négociations et interventions – parmi les plus tendus voire virulents que la capitale iranienne ait connus au cours de la dernière décennie – de la part des trois forces principales présentes sur le terrain :le pouvoir autoritaire et idéologique en place, les opérateurs économiques et financiers et les citoyens, en l’occurrence artistes et spectateurs. D’un côté, les forces politiques, idéologiques et financières dominantes mettent en place la privatisation du théâtre, qui est conceptualisée ici comme une stratégie spatiale (De Certeau, 1990). Elles régulent l’espace théâtral, sa production et son utilisation au moyen de multiples processus d’exclusion, d’uniformisation et de domination politiques, idéologiques et économiques. De l’autre côté, des citoyens déploient des tactiques (De Certeau), c’est-à-dire de nouvelles formes d’appropriation de l’espace en utilisant les brèches, incohérences et interstices dans la stratégie dominante. De ce fait, des espaces urbains produits, régulés et surveillés à des fins politiques, idéologiques, voire capitalistes, ouvrent la voie à de nouvelles formes d’agencies pour des artistes et spectateurs. Tantôt ces formes se traduisent par des actes de résistance, de lutte, de contestation (le théâtre Underground), tantôt par des négociations et des compromis (les théâtres privés) ou même par des contournements et des contre-expériences (le théâtre Off Stage). Cependant, quelles que soient la forme et les conséquences de ces interactions, celles-ci ouvrent des fractures dans l’ordre politique, idéologique et économique dominant la ville et son espace. Elles rendent ainsi possibles l’émergence et la survie de formes d’altérité dans la sphère et l’espace publics. / This thesis studies the theatre and its transformations in the socio-political context of Tehran between 2009 and 2019 through the question of spatiality (Lussault, 2007). This period is characterized, on the one hand, by the blossoming of new performance spaces of various architectural, urban and institutional natures throughout the city and, on the other hand, by the appearance of new forms of appropriation of urban spaces for theatrical purposes by artists and spectators. To question these mutations, this study analyses the three case studies – representative of private theatre, off stage theatre and underground theatre - from a theoretical approach that combines social production of space and social construction of space (Low, 2017). In doing so, the present thesis demonstrates that beyond the aesthetic and dramaturgical dimensions, the evolution of the theatre scene in Tehran results from a more significant change in the urban spatiality of the theatre. This materializes, on the one hand, in the transformation of the spatial organization of the theatre within the urban context and, on the other hand, in the ways in which the social and political relations and dynamics of the city are spatialized in the theatre. As a result of this double process, and in the tense and changing socio-political conjunctures of Tehran in 2010s, the theatre space, hitherto an almost compartmentalized space excluded from the public sphere, is manifesting itself as a new public space. Not only it becomes the political field where different political and social forces meet (Balme,2014), it also turns into one of the principal elements in the power dynamics among them. Its production as an architectural and urban entity, its occupation, its appropriation and even its social, symbolic and discursive characteristics and boundaries are then the object of struggles, debates, negotiations and interventions - among the most tense and even virulent ones that the Iranian capital has experienced in the last decade - on the part of the three main forces :the authoritarian and ideological power in place, the economic and financial operators and the citizens, in this case artists and spectators. On the one hand, the dominant political, ideological and financial forces are establishing the privatization of theatre, which is conceptualized here as a spatial strategy. (De Certeau, 1990). They regulate theatre space, its production and use through multiple processes of political, ideological and economic exclusion, homogenization and domination. On the other hand, citizens deploy tactics (De Certeau) that is, new forms of appropriation of space within the breaches, inconsistencies and interstices of the dominant strategy. As a result, urban spaces produced, regulated and monitored for political, ideological or even capitalist purposes immediately become the fields for new forms of artists and spectators’ agencies. Sometimes these forms take the form of acts of resistance, struggle, contestation (the Underground theatre), sometimes of negotiation, compromise (the private theatres) or even circumvention and counter-experiences (the Off Stage theatre). However, whatever the form and consequences of these interactions, they open up breaches and fractures in the political, ideological and economic order that dominates the city and its space. They thus make possible the emergence and survival of forms of otherness in the public sphere and the public space. / Doctorat en Arts du spectacle et technique de diffusion et de communication / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished