Jensen, O.B., Martin, M. orcid.org/0000-0003-0551-1072 and Löchtefeld, M. (2021) Pedestrians as floating life - on the reinvention of the pedestrian city. Emotion, Space and Society, 41. 100846. ISSN 1755-4586
Abstract
Walking with its average speed of 5 km/h was for a very long period the primary mode of moving and engaging with the immediate material environment for humans. However, over the past half-century, the socio-technical systems of automobility as well as other forms of non-human powered mobility have changed the ways in which cities are experienced. Most recently, however, the pedestrian mode has been reprioritised resulting in a shift of emphasis, particularly in European cities, toward recognising the destructive forces of automobility. This shift has been accompanied by a variety of pedestrian reprioritisation strategies including the pedestrianisation of city streets as well as restricted vehicular access to particular inner city zones at prescribed times. The challenge for many cities is how to legitimately change mindsets, from automobility to walking. This paper explores the reprioritisation of urban walking not as ‘infrastructure’ or an ‘intervention’ but as transitory, ‘floating life’ across space and time. We conceptualise walking as a multi-sensorial, effective, and mobile engagement with the material environment. In doing so, we ask how the ‘floating life’ of pedestrianism may be reflected upon as part of the so-called ‘mobilities turn’ and in particular how theories of materiality, embodiment, design and experience interlink with walking. In this paper walking as a pedestrian is therefore a particular quality of mobility. The way in which we ‘inhabit’ the city is significant when we walk, and turning to walking as ‘floating life’ pays attention to this underemphasised ontological dimension.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Emotion, Space and Society. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Mobilities; Pedestrianism; Cities; Embodiment; Design; Multisensorialism |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Urban Studies & Planning (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 30 Sep 2021 15:05 |
Last Modified: | 29 Mar 2023 00:13 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.emospa.2021.100846 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:178659 |
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