The framework of this article stems from the Simmelian urbanism: positive meanings of impersonality that resonate with the late Chicago School. The literature of the flâneur is used in this article to frame the impersonal attitude toward other persons in traffic. Data are drawn from six focus groups dealing with the daily journeys of dwellers of Helsinki, Finland. The data are assessed on the basis of a modal and enunciative analysis of semiotic sociology. Three ideal types of personal navigation and their maintenance of a certain amount of sociospatial distance to others show that the integrity and the flânerie's subtle resistance of acceleration still exist in contemporary urban traffic. Currently, the latter is done mainly by the flâneuse. The maintenance of distance is the carrying force of sociality in traffic. For urban studies, this traffic study gives field to search for functional and mental meaning of the general impersonality of urbanism.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bauman, Z.
(1994). Desert spectacular. In K. Tester (Ed.), The flâneur (pp. 138-157). London: Routledge.
2.
Campbell, C.
(1997). Shopping, pleasure and the sex war. In P. Falk & C. Campbell (Eds.), Shopping experience (pp. 166-176). London: Sage.
3.
Czarnowski, T.V.
(1978). The street as a communications artifact. In Andersson (Ed.), On Streets (pp. 207-211). Cambridge, MA: MIT.
4.
Dannefer, W.
(1977). Driving and symbolic interaction. Sociological Inquiry, 47(1), 33-38.
5.
de Certeau, M.
(1984). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
6.
Edensor, T.
(1998). The culture of the Indian street. In N. R. Fyfe (Ed.), Images of the street: Planning, identity and control in public space (pp. 205-221). London: Routledge.
7.
Fyfe, N. R.
(Ed.). (1998). Images of the street: Planning, identity and control in public space. London: Routledge.
8.
Goffman, E.
(1966). Behavior in public places: Notes on the social organization of gatherings. New York: Free Press.
9.
Goffman, E.
(1971). Relations in public: Microstudies of the public order. New York: Harper & Row.
10.
Hiebert, P. G.
(1976). Traffic patterns in Seattle and Hyderabad: Immediate and mediate transactions. Journal of Anthropological Research, 32(4), 326-336.
11.
Jonasson, M.
(1999). The ritual of courtesy—Creating complex or unequivocal places. Transport Policy, 6(1), 47-55.
12.
Jonasson, M. (2000). The creation of places in traffic through performative action. Dissertation, edited by the Department of Geography, University of Gothenburg, Series B no. 98.
13.
Juhlin, O.
(1997). Prometheus at the wheel. Representations of road transport informatics. Linköping, Sweden: Linköping University.
14.
Juhlin, O. (1999). Traffic behavior as social interaction-Implications for the design of artificial drivers. Paper presented in the 6th World Congress on ITS, Toronto. Retrieved January 15, 2002, from http://www.interactiveinstitute.se/mobility/Files/Juhlin2054.pdf
15.
Katz, J.
(1999). How emotions work. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
16.
Lefèbvre, H.
(1991). The production of space. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
17.
Lehtonen, T.-K.
, & Mäenpää, P. (1997). Shopping in the East Centre Mall. In P. Falk & C. Campbell (Eds.), Shopping experience (pp. 136-165). London: Sage.
18.
Nava, M.
(1997). Women, the city and the department store. In P. Falk & C. Campbell (Eds.), Shopping experience (pp. 56-91). London: Sage.
19.
Parkhurst Ferguson, P.
(1994). The flâneur on and off the streets of Paris. In K. Tester (Ed.), The flâneur (pp. 22-42). London: Routledge.
20.
Sanne, J. M.
(1999). Creating safety in air traffic control. Lund, Sweden: Arkiv.
21.
Sennett, R.
(1977). The fall of public man: On the social psychology of capitalism. New York: Vintage.
22.
Sheller, M.
, & Urry, J. (2000). The city and car. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 24(4), 737-757.
23.
Simmel, G.
(1964). The sociology of Georg Simmel (K. H. Wolff, Ed., Trans., with intro.). New York: Free Press. (Original work published 1950)
24.
Suchman, L. A.
(1987). Plans and situated actions: The problem of human-machine communication. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
25.
Sulkunen, P.
, & Törrönen, J. (1997a). The production of values: The concept of modality in textual discourse analysis. Semiotica, 113(1/2), 43-69.
26.
Sulkunen, P.
, & Törrönen, J. (1997b). Constructing speaker image: The problem of enunciation in discourse analysis. Semiotica, 115(1/2), 121-146.
27.
Taylor, P.
(1991). Modernities: A geohistorical interpretation. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
28.
Tester, K.
(Ed.). (1994). The flâneur. London: Routledge.
29.
Toiskallio, K.
(1996). Vapaa taksi? Kuljettajan tilitys—luottamuksella [Free cab? The driver's account—confidently]. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.
30.
Toiskallio, K.
(2000). Simmel hails a cab: Fleeting sociability in the urban taxi. Space and Culture, 6, 4-20.
31.
Veijola, S.
(1994). Metaphors on mixed team play. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 29(1), 31-49.
32.
Veijola, S.
(1997). Modaalisia suhteita pelissä ja keskustelussa [Modal relations in play and in conversation]. In P. Sulkunen & J. Törrönen (Eds.), Semioottisen sosiologian näkökulmia [perspectives in semiotic sociology] (pp. 129-152). Helsinki: Gaudeamus.
33.
Wirth, L.
(1938). Urbanism as a way of life. American Journal of Sociology, 44(1), 1-24.
