Temporalities of contingency: hope and play in amusement arcades of Blackpool

Whether in film, media rhetoric, or academia, Blackpool is a myriad of things in the British imaginary, often depicted as nostalgic, childlike, and dreamy, as well as a tacky, tawdry holiday of spectacle and intoxication.

On the other hand, the Financial Times has described Blackpool as 'economically and physically unwell' (O'Connor, 2017).

Most recently, anthropologist Dace Dzenovska (2023) has argued that Blackpool dwells in a spatial and temporal condition of 'emptiness'. By which she means 'a place where people go to be poor'.

Blackpool is a town associated with excess and abundance while simultaneously also associated with poverty and deprivation.

Alternatively, as the Mass Observation tradition has maintained, it is theorised and colloquially understood through a traditional lens of work and leisure.