Temporary Autonomous Home: Free parties and migration on the margins of the urban night

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between migration, do-it-yourself late-night leisure and integration in the margins of the urban city. While the study of migration and leisure has been widely addressed, a focus on underground tekno ‘free parties’ within migrant communities remains unexamined. This article draws on the notion of ‘Temporary Autonomous Zone’, which grasps the horizontal and momentary time-spaces of self-organization, creativity and freedom that articulate the tekno ‘free party’ culture. Departing from this notion, the concept of TAH (‘Temporary Autonomous Home’) explores the night and how these are felt and articulated for a group of migrants from southern European countries in the city of Bristol (United Kingdom). Using the TAH as a live metaphor, this article argues that these are non-traditional ways of participating in the foreign culture that pluralizes the processes of integration in contrast with the scarce sense of integration participants otherwise feel.