Supercars in a city: spatiality and class identities in Newcastle, Australia

In 2017 the residential streets of the East End, a beach-side suburb of Newcastle, were controversially turned into a Supercars racetrack. The Newcastle 500, set to be an annual event, sparked fierce debate between and amongst residents, race attendees, and government officials, invoking questions about who and what belongs in public space. The city of Newcastle has recently undergone a transformative period, moving away from its industrial roots and emerging into a vibrant and liveable city. The Newcastle 500 has surfaced tensions and conflict over how the city should evolve, and what values it should represent. Drawing on interviews, photo elicitation, and general observation with East End residents, Newcastle 500 attendees, and relevant stakeholders, this thesis engages with spatial notions of class and belonging. Application of Bourdieu’s concepts and related work on affect underpin this dissertation and are used to gauge ways in which people interact with, gravitate to, and feel a sense of belonging in space. This thesis considers why residents are drawn to the East End, finding that it is perceived to accommodate and represent their preferred lifestyles and tastes. This attachment to the neighbourhood, alongside considerable disruption caused by the Newcastle 500, contributes to the deep anguish residents experienced when the values or ‘feel’ of the space were disrupted by an undesirable event. On the contrary, for those whose tastes align with the Newcastle 500, the event seems to spark a sense of pride, community, and desirability of the city. This thesis explores these dispositional reactions to events through analysis of affective class relations and resistance to political power. The Newcastle 500 exposed ongoing classed struggles over public and private space which underpin conflict, debate, and resistance.