A Carnal Sociology of Clubbing, an Ethnographic Study on Senses and Pleasures

Club Studies, the field of interdisciplinary research devoted to study Electronic Dance Music (EDM) Culture and clubbing, have clashed with academics' attitude toward this topic since its origin. For decades even the most progressive scholars have not assessed Club Culture as a legitimate object, because it lacks of the rebelliousness and counter-cultural boost that characterized other youth subcultures (e.g. punk). On the contrary, EDM culture was considered a trivial and hedonistic phenomenon.

Nowadays, even if the situation is changed and dance culture have finally captured scholars' imagination, analytical and methodological problems remains. Both the culturalist approach to the study of clubbing, and the researches concerned with nightlife's risks and negative consequences have led to limited achievements, providing a representation of club culture, on the one hand, too idealistic and abstract while, on the other, too narrowed and pessimistic. In step with Western logocentrism, based on intellectual understanding and rational interpretation, scholars have not been able to deal with this pre-discursive world and to describe physical and sensitive experiences of clubbers.

The preliminary results of a multi-sited sensory ethnography in Milan and Berlin will be presented. The focus will be the embodied practices, observing how clubbers through intersensorial experiences actively engage both with environments and with their bodies. The attempt is to develop a reflection able to overtake the lack of academic discourse about pleasure, given that all the activities done at EDM parties - enjoying music, dancing, having fun with friends, meeting new people, drinking and taking drugs - are directly linked to corporal and sensorial pleasures.