Australian music venues, bars, and DIY (do-it-yourself) music events post ‘safe space’ policies to walls, Instagram pages, and bathroom doors. These policies invite event attendees to think of themselves as being within a distinct safe space. What differentiates these spaces from other venues is not readily observable. So, how are safe spaces made? What makes them different from any other event space? Are they different at all? This talk addresses these questions by explicating the meaning of safe spaces from how they are described and enacted by music venue operators and DIY event organisers in Canberra and Melbourne. Through data generated during 15 relational interviews and three periods of ethnographic participation in 2024, it outlines two distinct ways that safe spaces are made: one, via an agreement which I refer to as the Spatial Contract; the other, via gatekeeping with policies of ‘vibes-based’ exclusion. This analytic distinction is useful, I argue, because it emphasises that the boundaries to safe spaces are not natural, but socially produced. Safety is not determined by demarcating space, but instead by the social relations that produce it.

Emma Crocker is a Bachelor of Public Policy (Honours) and International Relations graduate from the ANU School of Politics and International Relations. This talk is based on her honours thesis and continued research into the politics, policies and practices of safe spaces.

Note: This is a hybrid seminar with the speaker appearing online: if you are on campus please join us at Seminar Room 3.72 in the RSSS Building.

To join online: https://anu.zoom.us/j/3364169330?pwd=ZStOdm4vTWpwS1RMbmFYUisxWVB2UT09

Seminars are 1 hour in duration.

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