People as infrastructure resistive politics: Designing nostalgia and storytelling in Austin’s downtown

Abstract

ABSTRACT Drawing on several months of informal observations and conversations in Austin, Texas, this paper explores how longtime clubbers maintain the nostalgia and meaning of local venues from newcomers who use these venues to enhance their social status. This work is based on a rich tradition of Global South and urban scholars, who demonstrate how disenfranchised city residents collaborate to elevate their standard of living and resist further encroachment of urban change in their spaces of living, forming informal economies, makeshift housing infrastructure, and social infrastructures. Adding to these works, I show how longtime patrons of music venues use what I call adhesive design: a resistive design technique where local patrons use stickers to embed venues with nostalgia and to authenticate long-term patrons and newcomers. This paper and my adhesive design concept contribute to a growing body of literature investigating collaborative resistance practices against gentrification and urban change, showing how nostalgia and storytelling are powerful tools to maintain social infrastructures.