The lanyard

Originating in nautical spheres, lanyards were initially used to suspend items like whistles around necks or cutlasses from belt buckles. Lanyards had both symbolic and practical qualities, allowing easy access to the object at hand but also signifying intent through visibility. The lanyard has now ridden the wave ashore and is often present in conferences, colloquia and workplaces, but maintains aspects of its original (multi)functions. Today, its practical function is to suspend a small identity card, to permit (or forbid) individuals’ access to certain spaces, and to communicate affiliations (professional, personal) through adornments often added to the lanyard strap. In SPARK, Cardiff University’s Social Science Research Park and the site from which this chapter is drawn, the lanyard plays a pivotal role in initiating, preserving and communicating boundaries of interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaboration. Through observations of the building – particularly its securitised doors, foyer and café – we explore how intra-action via lanyards (co)produces eddies, crosscurrents and backwaters for the slow and fast work of relationship management, boundary maintenance and trading. We emphasise how practices of collaboration are overlaid with institutional, material and emotional dimensions, and argue for the importance of attending to these for interdisciplinary collaboration to better function.