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University of Oxford
School of Geography and the Environment

 School of Geography and the Environment

IGS: Current and Recent Graduate Research

Zoë Enstone

The globalization of (un)popular culture

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Academic Profile

Zoë has a BA in Geography from the University of Oxford. She was awarded a scholarship by the Economic and Social Research Council to remain within the School of Geography and the Environment to complete her MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Policy and support her D.Phil. Current research builds on her undergraduate thesis entitled 'The Globalization of Goth Subculture', as well as drawing on valuable ethnographic research skills developed through her MSc thesis on climate change education ('An 'Inconvenient Truth' ?: Potential Challenges Facing Climate Change Education').

Zoë also enjoys taking 'Key Skills in Geography' tutorials for first year undergraduates at Brasenose College.

Other Affiliations
  • Zoë is a member of Brasenose College, Oxford;
  • Her research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC);
  • She is a current member and former President of Oxford University Rock Music Society; and
  • She is also a long-standing participant in the goth community and occasionally DJs at her local goth club.

Current Research

This research project aims to investigate how and what happens when cultures travel by tracing the geographies of a specific case study: goth subculture. 'Goth', in its contemporary manifestation as a music-based subculture, developed out of punk in the late 1970s. It is an interesting subculture as it is extremely mobile, with participants in most major cities, and it has been a consistent focus of popular moral debates.

Drawing on insights from non-representational theory within cultural geography, this study aims to highlight the importance of embodiment and affect in understanding cultural practices. It also seeks to demonstrate that the geographies of subcultural identities can be understood in terms of the differential spaces of involvement and anxieties generated within the mainstream population by this (un)popular group.

This study thus aims to answer three central questions:

  1. What is involved in the practice of goth and how does it travel?
  2. How are the practices and experiences of goth articulated through specific sites?
  3. How does goth participate in the production and circulation of cultures of (un)popularity?

Various qualitative methodologies are being employed to realise these aims, including photo-diaries and interviewing. A multi-site approach will be taken, with research conducted in the UK, USA and Japan, to allow for a comparative understanding of the differential production of (un)popular cultures.

More information can be found on Zoë's research website.

Research Interests

Globalization, subcultural studies, non-representational theory, visual ethnography, posthumanism, film studies, actor-network theory, communicating science, internet geographies.