In 2012 I helped build a stage in a wood yard across from the pub in preparation for the 4th annual Lefi parade (Figure 29). The yard acted as a gathering point for the parade
and hosted the festival afterwards where bands would play and the story of Seething would be acted out. Keith, the manager of the local branch of the national chain DIY store that owned the yard left his position over the course of the following year. The new manager, following the protocol of the chain store informed Seethingers that the space was no longer available for to use. However through Seething networks it wasn’t long before the council agreed to allow events in public parks.
A stage was borrowed from the local school, bin collection, storage, park access and other needs were met by various Seething connections to the council, local businesses, people with vans and so on. Each event made those connections stronger as more people were drawn into and constituted, the Seething networks. New traders and local businesses were encouraged to get involved. Local integration goes beyond a cash economy but works to produce networks of skills, trust and help thereby allowing people to lead productive lives, try new things and make ideas into events. PP Coffee provided hot chocolate during the skiing, hampers for a mass picnic and helped with planning, arranging and organising Seething. Their business grew from a stall at the sports day to being a regularly used shop on the high street. This was often used Seethingers for (sober) meetings away from the pub, usually just between a few people to discuss particular tasks. Unlike the pub, PP had a form of Seething privacy, people would say ‘hi’ but sit elsewhere if you were in a meeting, recognising the difference in atmosphere and social rules between pub space and PP Coffee space.
Fran, the regular Seething correspondent to stall holders at events, would oversee a range of stall holders who came to the events from high street supermarkets who would put on demonstrations, to home businesses to hobbyists selling craft items. The events provided a temporary alternative space of mixing away from the high street. Such events would not be recorded in the ASP data sources, such as business directories and building maps, yet are vital in supporting local businesses. Surbiton had a well-used and active high street and Steve had been involved in projects to support it as a locus of the local economy. He and a few others frequently engaged with the council and aimed to
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‘get hold’ of a shop as a base to promote Seething but also small businesses, local traders and crafts people without premises. During the entire fieldwork this never came to fruition as the bureaucratic restrictions ‘got in the way’. Steve made great efforts to keep this knowledge to himself and would often only pass on positive information keeping the negative effects, such as stress and disappointment, away from Seething meetings. This caused stress and strain in himself and only towards the later stages of the fieldwork did he talk of the effects that had on him. He long suffered with depression and Seething was a great help in tackling this yet he often talked of growing despondent with the way ‘some people are’ (see chapter 5) when they would not help or were only interested in profit. Steve was trying to make a better world and aspects of him were being sacrificed. The care of the self - for the self (following Foucault 1985) - was being sacrificed so the self for the local could be made in order to produce a self as local which is able to engage in a commitment to state of mind made through a way of shared thinking amongst people, the equal body local.
Seething events placed emphasis on local traders and crafts people; the local economy was seen as one that could be supported through particular types of transactions, exchanges and forms of capitalism. Profit was seen as the prime motive of the operations of big companies who had little commitment to the local area, whereas smaller companies not only have that commitment but need it and can trade with it. As Alex from the Surbiton Business Community explained during Seething Community Sports Day;
"They [high street business] don't see the benefit of doing things like this, they might get one or two people walk in off the high street but you can't run businesses like that anymore, you have to get out there, engage with people, make the market for yourself… we see this as networking really, not only that but getting involved in the community, knowing the customers, we live around here too we want it to be a nice place to live"
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Figure 35: The layout at the Seething community sports day, with businesses surrounding the running track.
Business would be loaned tables and marquees where possible. In return people offered help with running events and developing Seething life. This saw Seething and the local economy grow and mutually constitute each other. Transactions went beyond cash but were also measured in fun, quality of life and resource exchange. The local was being made.