Winter wonderlands: public outdoor ice rinks, entrepreneurial display and festive socialities in UK cities

Abstract

This paper provides a critical discussion of the uses and meanings of temporary outdoor ice rinks, which have become increasingly popular in UK cities over the last decade. The installation of ice rinks in cities in winter time is framed in a number of contexts, including entrepreneurial governance and civic boosterism, the uses of culture by the local state, invented winter and Christmas traditions, the effects of cold winter weather on sociality and other forms of embodied play argued to be reshaping urban socialities. Conceiving ice rinks as a form of ‘entrepreneurial display’, the paper also draws on theories of ‘expressive embodiment’ to explore how rinks also encourage particular ways of performing and interacting that contest current critiques of the effects of entrepreneurial urban governance.

Keywords:

• ice skating
• play
• urban governance
• cultural policy
• embodiment

Acknowledgements

Research support and additional observational data were provided by Aimee Jones. Thanks to three referees and the editors for helpful and supportive comments. The paper has benefited greatly from ‘live’ airings and subsequent discussions at the Universities of Sunderland, Hull and Leeds.

Notes

1. The websites consulted in writing this paper are listed here. I have chosen not to clutter up the body of the paper with lengthy URLs.

• www.bbc.co.uk/stoke

• www.belfastcity.gov.uk/celebratebelfast2006

• www.bexley.gov.uk

• www.birmingham.gov.uk

• www.bradfordurc.co.uk

• www.enfield.gov.uk/FortyHall

• www.enjoyengland.com/attractions/events/calendar/december/ice-skating

• www.exeter.gov.uk

• findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_/ai_n16877062 (Independent)

• www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/nov/02/uk.wintersports

• www.gigsinscotland.com

• www.haverhill-news.com

• www.ipswich.gov.uk/Angle

• www.leeds.gov.uk/icecube

• www.londonfoodfilmfiesta.co.uk

• www.londonskaters.com

• www.manchester.gov.uk/festivemcr

• www.mymetro.com

• www.polar-productions.com

• http://www.raisingkids.co.uk/xmas/fea_skating

• www.rochdaleobserver.co.uk

• www.rutland.gov.uk

• www.thewestonmercury.co.uk

• www.travel.guardian.uk

• www.visitbritain.com

• www.visitnewcastlegateshead.com

• www.wrexham.gov.uk

2. There is another sorry chapter to Stoke‐on‐Trent’s ice rink saga. The company who supplied the rink went into administration several days after the rink opened, and it was closed within two weeks. The ice rink was locally seen as the brainchild of the elected mayor, Mike Wolfe, who had to bear the brunt of subsequent criticism. Entrepreneurial governance can be a risky business.

3. A confession: I did not skate at all during the observational fieldwork, for fear of both exhibiting my own incompetence and of the risk of injury. A different paper would no doubt emerge from direct embodied experience on the ice.