The Fast and the Spurious: Geographies of Youth Car Culture in Hamilton, New Zealand

Abstract

“Boy racers” or “hoons” attract extensive media attention and are often the focus of public concern. Discourses about “hooning” often focus on notions of public safety and illegal behaviour. What is largely absent from these debates is alternative explanations as to why young people choose to engage in “hooning” behaviour, what drives them to congregate in public spaces and why they choose to express themselves through an “autocentric” culture. When these issues are addressed it is usually within broader policy frameworks which seek ways of dissipating youth activities in spaces constructed as “trouble spots”. This thesis represents an attempt to provide a reverse discourse about youth car culture and young people's presence in public spaces. Criminal activity not withstanding, youth car culture behaviour in this context is treated as a legitimate form of cultural expression that has the same social validity as other non-mainstream phenomena. Through feminist and poststructuralist understandings of identities, landscapes and place, the complexities of youth car culture will be unpacked in an attempt to expose “concerns” which may turn out to be little more than moral panic.