'What are they raving on about?': Play, Temporary Autonomous Zones and Reclaiming the Streets of Australia.

Susan Luckman, Department of English, University of Queensland

s.luckman@mailbox.uq.edu.au

One of the more interesting – and contentious - claims to have been made by those from within dance music cultures, (in particular those involved in raving per se as a personal and collective practice), is that it functions as a model of positive political action, opening up new spaces for more joyous and non-oppressive experiences of self and community in the face of the growing commodification of proscribed public spaces. As a vehicle for oppositional political movements, raving, as a claiming of space (both physical and metaphysical),has provided a focus for creative oppositional activism in the nineties; such activism is perhaps best exemplified by the overtly illegal actions of political dance collectives, such as Reclaim the Streets.

Here I wish to consider what can be learnt in terms of possible new modes of action for counter-hegemonic political movements at the beginning of anew century, within a politico-economic system which can and does easily accommodate (often through commercial appropriation) both the symbols and affects of critique, difference and resistance.