Space Invaders

Though she was a life-long Liverpool FC fan, Doreen Massey felt like a “space invader” whenever she attended matches, as she’d often be one of the few women on football terraces. Inspired by Massey’s usage of the term, sociologist Nirmal Puwar developed it into a sociological concept to understand “what happens when women and racialized minorities take up ‘privileged’ positions which have not been ‘reserved’ for them”. What kind of bodies are the somatic norm? What are the conditions of inclusion? Spatial Delight host Agata Lisiak speaks with Nirmal Puwar about her book Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place (2004), and about the postcolonial acts of space invading that Nirmal and her collaborators staged in Coventry’s iconic cathedral. We’d love to hear your stories too. Are you a space invader? Please share your experiences with us here Episode Credits Host: Agata Lisiak Guest: Nirmal Puwar Also Featured: Doreen Massey Writer and Producer: Agata Lisiak Senior Editor: Susan Stone Sound Producer: Reece Cox Production Assistant: Adèle Martin Music: Studio R Artwork: Bose Sarmiento Special Thanks to: Nitin Sawhney, Kuldip Powar In partnership with: The Sociological Review Foundation Funded by: Volkswagen Foundation Find more about Spatial Delight at The Sociological Review. Episode Resources Doreen Massey’s work quoted or mentioned in this episode: Space, Place and Gender (Polity Press, 1994) When Theory Meets Politics, Antipode, 40.3 (2008) Nirmal Puwar’s selected works: Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place (Bloomsbury, 2004) The Noise of the Past Unraveling, a film directed by Kuldip Powar, music by Nitin Sawhney, produced by Nirmal Puwar and Sanjay Sharma, 2008 Meetings: John Berger in the Library, an essay from A Jar of Wild Flowers, 2016 Walking Through Litter in Life Writing Projects Indomitable Mint in The Garden Zine Compiling Maxwell Street by Tim Cresswell, Sociological Review Magazine, 2019 In Memoriam: Tree Felling at The Plaza and In Transition: Comrades for the City – films by Adele Mary Reed in collaboration with Nirmal Puwar and Paul Chokran Puwar, N. and Sharma, S. 2011. Introduction: War Cries, The Senses and Society, 6:3, 261-266.