Everyday urban encounters as stratification practices

Abstract

Geographies of urban encounter explore how people live with difference in contemporary, super-diverse cities. For a deeper understanding of the role of encounters for living with cultural and social differences, we conceptualise encounters as manifestations of Foucauldian micro-mechanisms of power conducted by affects. Affects, understood as complex, reflexive states of being, are direct responses to social or environmental stimuli. Our main point is that affects have a great impact on situational struggles for interactional dominance as expressions of power. On the empirical basis of video-recorded chance interactions in Berlin and focus groups we analyse the influence affects display in mutual negotiations of power as situational stratifications between interlocutors. As our main result we conclude that spaces of mundane transgression emerge out of the impact of affects, which can be observed in moments of situational stratification on account of the influence that affects can have on passers-by.

Key words:

• chance encounter
• affect
• situational stratification
• power

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

We are grateful to the German Research Foundation (DFG) for the generous support of this research [Grant number He2417/11-1].

Notes

1 We are grateful to an anonymous referee from another scientific context for the specific expression ‘space of mutual transgression’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter Dirksmeier

Peter Dirksmeier is a Research Associate at the Geographisches Institut, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Ilse Helbrecht

Ilse Helbrecht is a Professor at the Geographisches Institut, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Email: [email protected]