Between traffic and walking discourse: Pedestrians in the traffic machine, hints from the Estonian case

Abstract

Walking has attracted increasing interest in the social sciences and humanities. Yet only rarely have studies in those disciplines considered the subject of traffic, leaving governing and regulations to traffic specialists and engineers. Primarily using conceptual reflections but intersecting these with an analysis of historical traffic regulations in Estonia as they are related to contemporary framings, this article introduces the pedestrian as an element of a traffic system who is governed to control her body in legally prescribed ways. Directing attention also to language, as the vignette from Estonia shows the existence of a particular word “liikleja” for the ways in which pedestrians are seen as being subject to the traffic system as disciplined elements of the traffic machine. The article describes such perspective as “traffic discourse” which is contrasted with the more holistic view of pedestrians present in walking studies (“walking discourse”).