Everyday improvising in public space: The forest pub as a site for suburban being

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study explores everyday improvising in the context of a forest pub in the suburb of Varissuo, Finland. The forest pub, maintained by the City of Turku, is an outdoor place where groups are encouraged to gather, socialize, and drink in public. Grateful for such an opportunity, the regulars embrace the forest pub, yet recognize its deficiencies in supporting public sociability and encounter. Through improvised action, the regulars respond to the limits and possibilities of their socio-spatial surroundings and find solutions to their everyday needs in the changing suburban landscape. This ethnographic study contributes to the discussions on the complex nature of spaces that exist on one hand as products of planning and control, and everyday practice and meaning on the other. Working between these aspects, urban improvising emerges as a contextualized, experimental, intuitive, and interactive everyday action, being central to the way people “keep life going” in their neighborhood. Everyday acts of improvisation unfold as a reflection of the regulars’ being and belonging in their suburb, suggesting an alternative view to spaces perceived as contested or marginal.