What the campus ‘Does’: projection, mobility, and power geometries in the university space

While scholarship about university campuses has tended to focus on practical discussions around resource allocation and architecture on the one hand and culturally informed experiences on the other, this article contributes to the growing body of empirical research exploring the relationship between them. Drawing on qualitative data from a diverse group of students at a UK university, it investigates their perceptions and navigation of their campus, invoking Doreen Massey’s conceptualisation of interrelational and endlessly processual spaces. The analysis exposes how ‘power geometries’ present in the university estate project a sense of its character, including what and who it considers more valuable. Furthermore, its layout and appearance – in conjunction with the way the institution is organised and who it is populated by – mediate students’ movements in ways that impose disciplinary and other forms of segregation. This extends our understanding of what campuses ‘do’ and how universities’ physical environs, in combination with administrative and social factors, can contribute to – and at times inhibit – the student experience. It also reiterates the importance and added value of exploring higher education’s socio-material dynamics while supporting the emerging view that neoliberalism is influencing campus development.