Urban Sociability Research Articles

Lo statuto sociale dell’amore nel Settecento: l’emozione ridefinita da mixité, spazi e diritti

The essay investigates the mutation that occurred in people during the Eighteenth century regarding the expectation of love: the change that took place in this field of feeling had the power to influence people’s choices and also to prefigure one’s future in ways that differed from family logic and social devices. The feeling of love was no longer seen as a passion irreconcilable with the social order, but rather as a path to the realisation of a full life thanks to the spread of a culture of sensitivity capable of influencing every field of human experience, spreading into all social strata. A mutation that, rather than being an ‘emotional refuge’, as suggested by William Reddy, stimulated new practices of urban sociability that focused on the co-presence of the two sexes, against the segregation of the past, which helped the spreading of greater knowledge and the releasing of new emotions and a new sensibility between men and women, also encouraging an awareness of the ‘rights’ of the heart.

Urban segregation on a micro scale: the consequences for the low-income residents of a socioeconomically mixed neighborhood in Mexico city

ABSTRACT The patterns of socio-spatial organization of differences have changed in Latin American cities, which has transformed the scale of urban segregation. This has led to an increase in socially mixed areas and poverty enclaves in neighborhoods that have attracted the interest of, both, public and private sectors. Although this phenomenon has been widely studied, the consequences for low-income inhabitants living in spaces that are undergoing urban renewal are not clear. This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of the implications of these changes by exploring three features: access to social programs; changes in the use and appropriation of public space; and daily practices and the limits of urban sociability. The research method consisted of a qualitative analysis of secondary sources, fieldwork, and interviews. We conclude that the decrease of urban segregation scale affects not just the housing structure, but also access to social programs, public spaces, and urban sociability; these factors are a part of the material and symbolic rearrangements that allow groups with great socioeconomic differences to live close to one another.

Perception of Spatial Legibility and Its Association with Human Mobility Patterns: An Empirical Assessment of the Historical Districts in Rasht, Iran.

Achieving legibility within the context of historical districts has become a controversial problem due to their widespread growth and unconventional constructions within, which has led to inconsistencies in the urban context system, and a decrease in the level of urban sociability. This paper aims to provide an empirical assessment towards facilitating the perception of spatial legibility and its association with human mobility patterns. To this end, a novel mix method was developed in order to comprehend the association between spatial legibility and human mobility patterns using Space Syntax, cognitive sketch maps, and time-lapse photography. The results revealed that there is a significant association between spatial legibility and human mobility patterns, such that the incorporation of objective and subjective factors affecting legibility, including highly integrated morphological characteristics along with the saliency of landmarks featuring historical values, can lead to increased human mobility patterns in terms of use frequency. Accordingly, this research aids urban planners and designers in recognizing how to deal with historical districts in order to foster the sociability of these areas and create a lively and socially sustainable urban environment.

‘Intelligible to the mind and pleasing to the eye’: Mapping out kinship in British family directories (1660–1830)

Peerages and baronetages were successful commercial directories sold by a number of prominent London booksellers from the beginning of the 18th century. They provided an account of most titled families (peers as well as baronets). As serial publications, they were intended for a larger public in need of identification tools in a context of expanding urban sociability and of major recomposition within the elites. In these pocket books, there were no longer the elaborate tree diagrams that had ornamented most of the visitation books of the College of Arms, and which still could be found among ancient family papers. This transition was required for technical, commercial, and also ideological reasons. The selling point for publishers was to provide an up-to-date account of the ‘modern’ families, which could be better achieved through alphabetical listings, biographical discourses, or tabular charts. However, this formal reconfiguration led to many criticisms. These family directories were accused of compromising the dignity of titled families. The idea of a lost Golden Age when ancient lineages had been exhibited on stone, wooden panels, or vellum regained some appeal among social commentators. After 1760, with the renewal of radicalism and the onset of the age of revolutions, tree thinking came to be rehabilitated, but was also reinvented to better defend and naturalise social hierarchies. In this context, trees were increasingly used as powerful national emblems and less as dynastic emblems. The changing fortunes of family trees in 18th-century British prints enable us to reflect on the ideological aspects of the visualisation of kinship.

Review: Branding Brazil: Transforming Citizenship on Screen, by Leslie L. Marsh

Review: <i>Branding Brazil: Transforming Citizenship on Screen</i>, by Leslie L. Marsh

Impact of Land Use Diversity on Daytime Social Segregation Patterns in Santiago de Chile

Latin American cities are known for their high levels of marginality, segregation and inequality. As such, these issues have been the subject of substantial discussions in academia, with the predominant approach being the study of residential segregation, or what we call “nighttime segregation”. Another dimension of urban sociability, related to labor, is what we call “daytime segregation”, which has been far less studied. This article makes an original methodological contribution to the measurement of non-residential or daytime segregation based on data from mobility surveys. It seeks to explain this segregation measurement according to the diversity and distribution of land uses, as well as other characteristics of the built stock, such as land price and built-up density. We measured daytime social mix in urban spaces, and we show how it highly relates to land use diversity in a Latin American megacity, such as Santiago, Chile. We found that land use diversity plays a key role in enhancing the daytime social diversity of urban spaces, contributing to generate a more heterogeneous city and social gatherings during working days. This research is not only a contribution to the understanding of sociability patterns in cities but is also a contribution to public policy and the work of urban planners, as it informs the development of more diverse and integrated cities, which is a key tool for strengthening democracy, the exchange of ideas, the economy and social welfare.

Tobacco and the Social Life of Conquest in London, 1580–1625

AbstractFrom its origins in the Chesapeake and the Caribbean to its transformation into smoke in a Jacobean chamber, tobacco entered drastically new contexts of use as it travelled from Indigenous America to the social spaces of early seventeenth-century London. This article draws on comparative anthropology and archaeology to explore how early colonization, particularly in Jamestown, influenced the development of smoking among the English political elite. This offers a case study into the ways in which Indigenous commodities and knowledge were integrated into English ritual practices of their own; it also reveals the deliberate choices made by the English to set themselves apart from those they sought to colonize. Placing the material practices and wit poetry of gentlemen within the geopolitics of colonialism raises attention to the acts of erasure or dispossession that accompanied the incorporation of tobacco into urban sociability. Here, the practices of Indigenous peoples were modified and altered, and the pleasures of plantation were expressed as an intoxication as potent as the plant itself.

Ecologia humana e sociabilidade urbana

Considerada uma das fundadoras da pedra angular da sociologia urbana, a assim chamada Escola Sociológica de Chicago foi responsável por um dos mais ousados esforços de elaboração de síntese teórica no moderno campo sociológico, encontrando relevantes pontos de contato entre as teorias de Georg Simmel e Ferdinand Tönnies, para mencionar dois “cânones” ainda não muito referenciados nos dias de hoje. Tomando a cidade (ou o “fenômeno urbano”) como sua unidade de análise por excelência, promoveu, lado a lado a uma perspectiva teórica original, uma vigorosa agenda de pesquisa e refinada abordagem empírica dos fenômenos sociais urbanos, inclusive, abrindo passagem para o desenvolvimento ulterior de outras linhagens sociológicas. O objetivo desse artigo é realizar um breve e modesto balanço do repertório e da gramática conceitual elaborados no período formativo da Escola de Chicago, especialmente através da contribuição de figuras pioneiras de Robert Park, Roderick McKenzie e Ernest Burgess. Considero que o movimento teórico/programa de pesquisa conhecido como Ecologia Humanafoi o primeiro a buscar uma solução, fortemente ancorada em uma abordagem empírica, para compreender as correlações possíveis entre certas configurações sócio-espaciais e disposições comportamentais dos indivíduos em sociedades urbanas modernas, contribuindo para a emergência e consolidação da noção de sociabilidade urbana.

La regeneración urbana implementada en Guayaquil y Barcelona. Desvelando la retórica proyectual del espacio público

La construcción de espacios públicos es estratégica para la gobernanza urbana, ya que crea símbolos de legitimidad política, a la vez que concreta el objetivo de rentabilidad económica. Su promoción es avalada por un discurso compartido entre gobernantes, promotores y arquitectos, orientado a enaltecer las cualidades del espacio público como lugar destinado a la ciudadanía, y a ocultar la privatización de las plusvalías e implementación de políticas de control para regular la sociabilidad urbana. Evidenciar lo que opera detrás de esta retórica implica develar la etapa de concepción del Malecón 2000 de Guayaquil y de la Vila Olímpica de Barcelona, desde donde es susceptible identificar el constructo institucional que determinó la configuración del entorno construido. La ejecución de ambos proyectos se dio bajo un modelo de gestión urbana empresarial, lo que ratifica el fundamento del espacio público como un producto ideológico al servicio de la reapropiación capitalista de la ciudad.

When Music Invades the Urban Spaces: the Piano City Festival in Milan, a New Paradigm of Sociability?

In 2010 the pianist and composer Andreas Kern organized Piano City, a metropolitan piano festival with original and innovative elements: the locations for the concerts are living rooms; the profile of the executors and interpreters include professional musicians, but also piano students, teachers, amateurs and piano-lovers; the heterogeneity of the musical genres (classic music, rock, jazz etc.); last but not least, the use of the Internet as a medium to publicize the event. Inspired by Kern’s idea, Ludovico Einaudi first organized a Milanese edition of Piano City in 2011. Since then, the piano-festival has represented a significant episode in the recent revamping of the city image after a period in which it had become dull and weak. Milan has interpreted at its best the philosophy of this event: the promotion of typical places, the use of the web and of social media, the urban hospitality and the free exhibitions, the inhabitants’ involvement, the incentive to explore the city in order to rediscover and reappropriate the public spaces; these are just some of the strengths of Piano City Milan: these elements make this piano festival an opportunity for the construction of a collective sense of place and a new paradigm of urban sociability that offers the city the chance to redeem itself, its own identity and to activate new forms of self-narrative.

Visitors to Greek Thermal and Seaside Spas (Mid-19th Century–Early 20th Century)

Thermal tourism is considered the first form of tourism in the 19th-century Greek state. At that time, patients decided to travel to Greek thermal baths to seek therapy and pain relief. The first thermal spas in Greece can be considered ‘latecomers,’ because they began to develop after their counterparts in other areas of Europe, and they had few and limited facilities. However, in the mid-19th century, the urban space of Greek thermal spas and seaside resorts began to transform architecturally due to measures taken according to state policy and the increasing number of visitors. In this paper, I will attempt to study the architectural transformation of Greek spas and the profile of visitors and patients in the two phases of their development. My research is based on 19th-century primary sources (laws and doctrines, patient registries, medical reports, advertisements, postcards, novels and memoirs). I will assert that in the first stage of their development (1833–1890) Greek resorts had minimal accommodation and leisure facilities. Their clientele consisted of patients and travellers from nearby locations who encountered the lack of proper medical care and accommodation establishments. In their next phase (1890–1930), the urban space of Greek spas was transformed to cater to the needs of a different clientele. Visitors to Greek spas were patients and holidaymakers who usually travelled with other family members. The square and the promenade of thermal spas and seaside resorts became centres of urban sociability. They stayed at luxury hotels, and they enjoyed the sociability of modern facilities (restaurants, theatres, and casinos).

Adorno y representación: escenarios cotidianos de vida a finales del siglo XVIII en Madrid

Home decoration in late eighteenth century Spain experienced substantial changes as a result of the new customs and practices demanded by modern urban sociability. This new dimension took home as a stage for everyday life, an environment of representation assembled under the dictates of «good taste» and fashion. Never before it had been more necessary to keep abreast of fashion developments and the press played an important role in the diffusion of them, helping us in the rediscovery of those disappeared contexts. From the Diario de Madrid it is possible to know and understand the importance that ornamenting had among those people who wanted to be part of modern life. This eagerness promoted both, production and trade of arts and manufactures beyond the Fine Arts.

The transforming city in nineteenth-century literary journalism: Ramón de Mesonero Romanos’ ‘Madrid scenes’ and Charles Dickens’ ‘Street sketches’

ABSTRACT:Nineteenth-century urbanization and industrialization in western Europe have clearly contributed to the formation of societal knowledge and self-reflexive cultural iconographies. Especially from the 1820s onwards, one major context for discussing the social and cultural diversity of the city and concomitant socio-political tensions was the emerging market of journals and magazines. Based upon the writings of two exemplary authors, this article investigates with which techniques and metaphors nineteenth-century journalistic sketches depicted urban sociability and conditions. Furthermore, it reflects on how not only the ever more differentiating urban environments but also the proximity of different networks and institutions of knowledge encouraged the refinement of social observation and thought. Exploring a neglected genre of social knowledge production, the article proposes new perspectives for urban history and aims at stimulating a critical review of contemporary research practices in all branches of the social sciences.

Popular Political Agency in Byzantium's villages and towns

While cotemporary work on the Byzantine polity presents Constantinople as a hub of a vividly polyphonic politics, much less has been said about the social and political identity of the empire’s smaller settlements. Following our field’s renewed interest in urban sociability, popular political agency, and collective identity I turn here to this larger world of villages and towns in order to examine the relationship of such social units with the Roman world around them during the middle Byzantine period. In doing so I trace village and town attitudes towards authority and follow evidence of collective action, which by all accounts should qualify as politics.

La revolución digital: mobile media use in contemporary Cuba

ABSTRACTRecent scholarship on mobile internet use in the Global South highlights access disparities, along with shifting social practices that accompany greater web connectivity. Cuba is part of the Global South, and ranks among the least internet connected countries in the world. Venegas’[2010. Digital dilemmas: The state, the individual, and digital media in Cuba. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press] thorough account of technology use in Cuba positions Cuban digital media as an assemblage of political, economic, historical, and global factors. Recently, however, mobile digital technologies in Cuba have undergone rapid transformation. Continuing tensions between the US and Cuba remain part of how the country's infrastructure and internet practices develop in location-specific ways. In this paper, we utilize ethnographically-informed data to provide a case study of the mobile internet adaptations in Havana, Cuba. Specifically, we draw upon Sutko and de Souza e Silva [2010. Location-aware mobile media and urban sociability. New Media & Society, 13(5), 807–823] framework for location-aware mobile media and urban sociability to examine the unique communication and coordination practices of Havana internet culture. Additionally, Massey [2005. For space. London: Sage] and Wiley and Packer [2010. Rethinking communication after the mobilities turn. The Communication Review, 13(4), 263–268] notions of space allow investigation of Cuban cultural technologies within a larger social field. These theoretical lenses enable interrogation of mobile device adaptations on mobility, sociability, and space to position Cuban media use as an assemblage of local and global forces.

Slobodno vrijeme kao dimenzija kvalitete života stanovništva Općine Gornje Rijeke

Način provođenja slobodnog vremena pojedinca u sredini u kojoj živi jedan je od čimbenika koji utječu na kvalitetu njegova života. Zbog navedenih obilježja prostora (prirodnog i izgrađenog okoliša), veličine i strukture naselja, (malo)brojnosti stanovništva, prevladavajuće gospodarske grane i nekih drugih atributa – Općina Gornja Rijeka odabrana je kao primjer studije slučaja u istraživanju kvalitete života stanovništva u ruralnim prostorima. Istraživanje je provedeno metodom ankete tijekom studenog i prosinca 2012. godine, na neproporcionalnom prosudbenom uzorku od 170 ispitanika starih od 18 do 60 godina. Cilj ovoga rada je analiza dijela rezultata istraživanja kojima je ispitivan način provođenja slobodnog vremena stanovnika. Pri tome je pri procjeni ukupne kvalitete života stanovništva izabranog područja pozornost usmjerena na mogućnosti za aktivnosti dokolice u naseljima u kojima žive. Način i kvaliteta provođenja slobodnog vremena mjereni su pitanjima zatvorenog tipa o vrstama i učestalosti bavljenja određenim aktivnostima, a potom su analizirani u odnosu na izabrane sociodemografske varijable (dob, spol, bračni status, broj članova kućanstva ispitanika), zdravstveni status i visinu prihoda pojedinca, (ne)bavljenje poljoprivredom kao djelatnošću, obrasce podrške i društvenosti, percepciju osobne kvalitete života i kvalitete života u naseljima u kojima ispitanici žive. Rezultati faktorske analize primijenjene na 14 varijabli (aktivnosti slobodnog vremena) potvrdili su pet faktora kojima je moguće opisati način provođenja slobodnog vremena stanovnika odabranoga ruralnog područja i to faktora urbane dimenzije, tradicionalne dimenzije, dimenzije društvenosti, dimenzije hobija te medijske dimenzije. Jedan od zaključaka istraživanja je da se usporedo sa smanjenjem razlika u načinu života stanovnika ruralnih i urbanih prostora (posebice kada je riječ o stanovništvu u dobi od 18 do 60 godina) postupno smanjuju i razlike u načinu provođenja slobodnog vremena. To se objašnjava u prvom redu sve brojnijem zapošljavanjem stanovnika ruralnih krajeva u nepoljoprivrednim djelatnostima, boljom prometnom povezanosti sela i grada te suvremenim komunikacijskim mogućnostima seoskih kućanstava (internet). Ujedno, istraživanje je potvrdilo da mogućnosti (infrastruktura i organiziranost) za aktivnosti dokolice u naselju u kojem pojedinac živi značajno utječu na procjenu ukupne kvalitete života.

Discursos educacionais na paisagem urbana

Entendendo, por um lado, a educação como um fenômeno que não é adstrito à escola, mas que se efetiva num processo de constituição subjetiva que se espalha por toda a sociedade, por meio de diferentes mecanismos e suportes, atingindo toda a população; e, por outro, considerando o outdoor como uma variação dos impressos educacionais, uma vez que sua materialidade se configura pelo recurso da impressão, assim como livros e jornais, por exemplo, busca-se estabelecer uma discussão acerca de discursos sobre educação e escolarização, tendo outdoors como suporte físico. Assim, a partir de uma série de outdoors que constitui o corpus documental da investigação, são analisados discursos veiculados entre os meses de outubro de 2007 e março de 2008, na cidade de Uberlândia, inscrevendo na ordem imaginária da população determinadas concepções de educação e escolarização. Aponta-se, então, que, a exposição dos outdoors como um impresso particular de propaganda não é incólume, uma vez que o discurso veiculado por eles concorre para a produção de efeitos de sentidos que incidem diretamente na sociabilidade urbana e no enquadramento de condições culturais que fazem com que a percepção sobre a educação seja modificada ou pelo menos entre numa ordem de sentidos estabelecida por uma determinada verdade. De modo que é possível dizer que todas as imagens da educação acabam por pavimentar um solo de percepção da escola e seu papel na sociedade e, de uma forma ou de outra, instituir verdades sobre educação e o acesso ao ensino, forjando subjetividades individuais e coletivas.

A Provincial Frost Fair: Urban Space, Sociability and Spectacle in Shrewsbury During the Great Frost of 1739

This article uses a contemporary print, antiquarian histories and newspapers to examine the frost fair that took place on the River Severn at Shrewsbury during the great frost of 1739. By comparing the Shrewsbury frost fair with others that were organised on the Rivers Thames, Ouse and Tyne (for which printed handbills survive), it demonstrates how Shrewsbury’s mirrored other frost fairs held during the seventeenth, eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It included printing activities, promenading and sociability, as well as spectacles, notably Robert Cadman a ‘flying man’ who entertained the crowds, before plummeting to his death. The paper highlights an aspect of eighteenth-century culture by showing the transient nature of entertainments, urban spaces and forms of sociability and spectacle and argues that historians should consider frost fairs in localities outside London as events which provide insights into provincial urban culture.

Fêtes et transgression à Lausanne au xviiie siècle

During the eighteenth century, parties and balls represent in Lausanne – the cultural capital of Vaud region under the administration of the Republic of Bern – a part of the urban Sociability of the local elites and the foreign nobles. The ruler provides a more flexible framework for the control of morals, especially the prohibition of dance as it was established in the aftermath of the Reformation. It displeases those who fear an undermining of the traditional social order in a context of secularization of society, whereas for a majority of its local agents dance, until then the prerogative of higher categories, is now a right to happiness for all.

A cotidianidade do cinema

Neste ensaio, explora-se os efeitos do cinema na vida cotidiana, partindo de uma reflexão sobre o cinema brasileiro das décadas de 1950 e 1960, em seus aspectos de produção, distribuição e exibição, captado mediante as experiências de uma moradora da cidade de Laguna, Santa Catarina. Dona Betinha, por 18 anos manteve um diário onde registrou 805 idas ao cinema, das quais 69 foram para assistir à produções nacionais, em duas salas de rua da cidade: o Cine Mussi e o Cine Roma. Coloca-se o problema de pensar o cinema que existiu como parte da vida cotidiana do público, que estendeu-se como acontecimento na cidade, motor de sociabilidade, e que é presente enquanto memória.