Liquid Urbanisms: Dublin's Loose Networks and Provisional Places

My PhD thesis contributes to the disciplines of Geography and Urban Studies by adding the vocabulary, typology and conceptual framework of what I call ‘Liquid Urbanisms’ (LU). My LU typology invites scholars to investigate a range of provisional places and projects in their city initiatives, largely overlooked in the ‘temporary urbanisms’ literature, including autonomous social centres and direct-action occupations, and highlights the need to include these lesser-known projects in our understandings of how the neoliberal city is made and how groups, artists and activists contribute to the complex and fluid timespaces of the lived, rhythmic city and emphasises the nuanced everyday experiences of those creating more liveable spaces in post-austerity cities. It introduces an innovative methodological approach which I describe as a ‘Flexible Activist Case Study Approach’, which includes mixed qualitative methods across numerous case studies over a period of three years, to capture a range of case studies. The fourteen case studies I examined in the PhD varied, but I classified them into three broad types: Creative, Community-Based and Autonomous Liquid Urbanisms. These case studies include: a pop-up urban park, a squat, a networking group, community urban gardens, exhibitions, occupations, an art and cultural centre, projects in annual festivals, among others. I also identified four tributaries, or characteristics, which intersect and flow with the types of LU: networks and place, timespaces and rhythms, use value and urban commons, and political beliefs and institutional relationships. When combined, the LU types and tributaries form a typology and illustrate the ecology of provisional places in Dublin