a life lived on the corner

295 Pages·2013·4.54 MB·English

by  Grace Murphy

A LIFE LIVED ON THE CORNER

By

Bronwyn Jewell McGovern

A thesis
submitted to Victoria University of Wellington
in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in Sociology

Victoria University of Wellington
2013
This thesis is dedicated to two brothers
Warrick McGovern 24/10/67 – 11/05/94
Bernett Hana 08/02/57 – 15/01/12
Both of whom the street took too soon

In memory of Brother, an independent spirit, impossible to classify
Abstract

This thesis explores the everyday life of Brother, a well-known street dweller and
local identity, who lives everyday life on a busy street corner in Wellington,
Aotearoa New Zealand. Brother’s way of doing ‘being ordinary’ attracts strong
public curiosity, media interest, and monitoring by informal and formal social
control mechanisms, including medical intervention. This research provides a
comprehensive account of what can happen to those at the margins who dare, or
are impelled, to do things differently. My research is inspired by the longstanding
tradition of street corner sociology, and grounded within the sociology of everyday
life orientation. My street ethnography involved participant observation over a
three-and-a-half year period. In that time, I observed Brother and other street
people, capturing the depth and nuanced complexities of a life lived in the open.
Central to this thesis is an examination of the ways in which wider social
structures and institutions bear upon the local micro-setting, in particular how
classification processes act to ‘make, remake, and unmake’ people. Three core
concepts of space, body, and social interaction are explored to examine, through
the situatedness of everyday talk and social action, how social meanings are
locally produced and understood. I argue that by developing spatial, bodily, and
interactional methods, Brother has established organisational and social capacities,
and lines of conduct, that are firmly founded in autonomous actions. Through his
rejection of ascribed ‘homeless’ membership and his clear embracement of a street
lifestyle, Brother’s street life is shown to subvert and trouble normative
understandings, while engendering and maintaining a lived sense of home in the
city he calls his whare [house]. My research contributes an Aotearoa New Zealand
perspective to the international sociological street corner landscape, and provides a
Wellington perspective to the emerging domestic literature on street life. More
broadly, my study aims to stimulate critical sociological reflection regarding
different modes of being and belonging in the world and how we, as a society,
respond to this.

v
Acknowledgements

Brother, I am in your debt for granting me the privilege of ‘letting me in’ to learn
how life is lived on the street corner. The big (sorta) book is finally finished.

Kevin, huge thanks for your insightful guidance, positive encouragement, and
intellectual engagement. If nothing else, I’m confident I’ve mastered apostrophes’.

Michael, Jessie, Grace, Eilish, and Ruby – in the order you began to ground,
define, and enrich my everyday life – you are my motivation. Thanks for being so
patient.

Simon, thanks for your support, especially for picking me up from fieldwork at
3am when I had a flat car battery, no credit on my cell phone, and no money in my
wallet. You are my knight in a shining Mazda.

th
To the postgrads who made everyday life on the 9 floor a homely experience –
especially Rachael Fabish, Owen Hughes, Riki Mihaere, and Dionne Steven –
thanks, friendly faces and words made the difference.

Special thanks to: Kate Amore, who I know will long regret passing up the
ultimate ‘Big ups’; Sarah Wright, who has been on a long sociological and
personal journey with me; Diana Watt, for her effervescent friendship, ‘writer’s
massages’ and ‘real world’ reminders; Belinda Brown, whose friendship includes
the stunning photography that brings life and vitality to this work; Stephen Jinks
for bringing his humour and tarot cards with him on his trips back home; and
Sandra Grey and Adam Meers who remain loyal constants ‘in my corner’.

Last, but not least, I am grateful for the support of a VUW Scholarship and the
consistent work opportunities afforded to me from within VUW and from the
Shore & Whāriki Research Centre at Massey University in Auckland.

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Contents

Abstract v
Acknowledgements vi
Contents vii
List of figures viii
Prologue x
Chapter One Introduction 1
Chapter Two Researching on the margins of homelessness 11
Chapter Three Conceptualising an everyday street life 31
Chapter Four Doing street corner sociology 48
Chapter Five Interpreting Wellington’s street scene 83
Chapter Six Space matters 126
Chapter Seven The socio-spatial body made meaningful 161
Chapter Eight Maintaining ‘elbow room’ in a publicly lived life 202
Chapter Nine Home street home 237
Epilogue 255
References 260

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List of figures

Prologue:1 Farewell messages of love, peace, and respect ..................................................... x
Prologue:2 Street shrine ......................................................................................................... xi
Figure 4:1 Brother, cornering everyday life .......................................................................... 48
Figure 4:2 Observing from ‘my throne’ at the northern entrance to Cuba Mall ................... 58
Figure 4:3 ‘Stepping out’ – a late night hīkoi ....................................................................... 63
Figure 5:1 Wellington’s Bucket Man and Blanket Man (Brother) ........................................ 95
Figure 5:2 Internet wit ........................................................................................................... 98
Figure 5:3 Comments posted on Blanket Man’s Myspace page ......................................... 100
Figure 5:4 A British example of the championed ‘tramp’ status of an individual .............. 101
Figure 5:5 Brother Sharp and one of Westwood’s ‘Homeless Chic’ models at Milan
Fashion Week ................................................................................................... 103
Figure 5:6 One pedestrian’s view, expressed in a note ....................................................... 106
Figure 5:7 A letter added to signage outside Wellington’s homeless men’s shelter
playfully elevates the status of the city’s poorest, most marginalised
citizens .............................................................................................................. 107
Figure 5:8 Glover Park ........................................................................................................ 110
Figure 5:9 Hoardings erected around Glover Park, showing a yesteryear tramp and
referencing homeless occupants ....................................................................... 112
Figure 6:1 Brother domestically appropriating a city footpath as home space ................... 127
Figure 6:2 Signage outside Wellington’s Public bar, located on one of Brother’s
primary home corners ....................................................................................... 133
Figure 6:3 Street sleeping ................................................................................................... 136
Figure 6:4 Courtenay Place and its immediate environs, marking Brother’s city-as-
whare spaces ..................................................................................................... 142
Figure 6:5 ‘Artist’s’ impression of a laser illuminating the ‘Home of Ben’ ....................... 143
Figure 6:6 Brother under police arrest on the Public Bar corner ........................................ 150
Figure 6:7 Brother exercising passive resistance ................................................................ 150
Figure 6:8 Representational ‘narrative space’ ..................................................................... 157
Figure 6:9 Logos of the organisations that the poster’s creator considers played a role
in Brother’s committal ...................................................................................... 158
Figure 6:10 A message that was later added to the poster by another member of the
public ................................................................................................................ 158
Figure 7:1 Occupying city space as intimate ‘sunning space’ ............................................ 161
Figure 7:2 Expressing the self through a material artefact associated with the body ......... 173
Figure 7:3 Brother’s ‘contracted’ body outside the ANZ Bank .......................................... 175
Figure 7:4 The horizontal, dirty, semi-naked presentation of the body in public ............... 177
Figure 8:1 A man plays his flute in Cuba Mall beside Brother ........................................... 202
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Figure 8:2 ‘Blanket Man’ impersonators paying Brother a street visit as they make
their way to the sports stadium ......................................................................... 211
Figure 8:3 Sevens revellers prodding, poking, and photographing Brother as he
sleeps ................................................................................................................ 212
Figure 8:4 Stooping to pick up a cigarette butt ................................................................... 221
Figure 8:5 Brother’s street enactment of the ‘Māori side-step’ .......................................... 225
Figure 9:1 Brother dozing outside Fix – the new location he was forced to take up
when prevented from occupying Primary location 1a during banking
business hours ................................................................................................... 252
Epilogue:1 One of many public condolences expressed at the makeshift memorial .......... 256
Epilogue:2 Brother in 2001, at Wellington’s ‘One Love’ concert, which
commemorates Bob Marley’s birthday ............................................................ 258

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Prologue

1
On January 15th 2012, Brother died suddenly, unexpectedly, and alone in a
Wellington Hospital bed during what was supposed to be a brief routine visit to
monitor his bloods. Within two hours, Brother’s death was being reported by the
New Zealand news media. By nightfall, Brother’s primary home on the footpath
outside a bank in Courtenay Place was transforming into a vibrant street shrine.
Candles lined the low ledge of the building above his ‘spot’, flickering in the
breeze. On the ground, several people were camped out in sleeping bags,
beginning a vigil that was to last a week – until Wellington City Council
dismantled the shrine. Farewell messages of love, peace, and respect covered the
facade of the building, for example: “Passing of a legend”; “You will be missed
Ben Hana. Forever on this corner!”; “R.I.P blanket man – even if you did decline
my noodles” (Prologue:1).

Prologue:1 Farewell messages of love, peace, and respect
Source: Author, 2012

1 Brother is my research participant, the subject of this thesis.
x