How environments speak: everyday mobilities, impersonal speech and the geographies of commentary

Abstract

This paper examines commentary as a mode of speaking that has not received sufficient attention by social and cultural geographers. In contrast to a representational understanding of commentary, where commentary is the expert interpretation of an environment, this paper develops a more passive understanding of commentary where the commentator is a figure through which the affective, material forces that constitute environments become expressed. Based on qualitative fieldwork in Sydney, Australia, the paper examines three modes of everyday commentary related to commuting. The commentaries of reportage, anecdote and autoventriloquy each demonstrate in different ways how the affective, material environments of commuting become spoken. The paper shows, first, how commentary is a constitutive rather than derivative aspect of the experience of commuting. Second, it shows that commentary is an expression of affective, material environments, rather than either the willed self-expression of the speaker, or the manifestation of socially and historically contingent discourses. Third, it shows that commentary can both close down and draw out specific affective, material environments. Fourth, it shows how commentary modulates the powers of existence in the zone of the commute, transforming the affective possibilities immanent to different situations.

Cómo hablan los ambientes: movilidades cotidianas, discurso impersonal, y las geografías de los comentarios

Este artículo examina el comentario como un modo de hablar que no ha recibido suficiente atención por parte de geógrafos sociales y culturales. En contraste con una comprensión representacional del comentario, donde el comentario es la interpretación de un entorno de un experto, en este documento se desarrolla una comprensión más pasiva del comentario donde el comentarista es una figura a través del cual las fuerzas materiales y afectivas que constituyen el entorno llegan a ser expresadas. Basado en un trabajo de campo cualitativo en Sydney, Australia, el documento examina tres modos de comentarios diarios relacionados con el viajar cotidiano. Cada comentario de reportaje, anécdota y auto-ventriloquia (autoventriloquy) demuestra en diferentes maneras cómo los entornos afectivos y materiales del trayecto cotidiano son expresados. El documento muestra cómo, en primer lugar, un comentario es un aspecto constitutivo más que derivado de la experiencia del viajar cotidiano. En segundo lugar, muestra que el comentario es una expresión del entorno afectivo y material, más que la auto-expresión voluntaria del hablante, o la manifestación de discursos social e históricamente contingentes. En tercer lugar, se demuestra que el comentario puede tanto cerrar y expandir entornos afectivos y materiales específicos. En cuarto lugar, se muestra cómo el comentario modula los poderes de la existencia en la zona del viaje cotidiano, transformando las posibilidades afectivas inmanentes a diferentes situaciones.

Comment les environnements parlent: déplacements quotidiens, discours impersonnel et les géographies de commentaire

Cet article examine le commentaire en tant que mode d'expression qui n'a pas reçu d'attention suffisante de la part des géographes sociaux et culturels. En contraste avec une perception représentative du commentaire, où le commentaire est l'interprétation experte d'un environnement, cet article développe une compréhension plus passive du commentaire, où le commentateur est une figure à travers qui s'expriment les forces affectives et matérielles que constituent les environnements. Basé sur un travail qualitatif sur le terrain à Sydney, en Australie, l'article examine trois modes de commentaire quotidien en rapport avec le déplacement pendulaire. Les commentaires de reportage, anecdote et autoventriloquie démontrent tous de différentes façons comment s'expriment les environnements affectifs et matériels du déplacement pendulaire. L'article démontre comment d'abord, le commentaire est un aspect constitutif plutôt que dérivatif de l'expérience de déplacement pendulaire. Deuxièmement, il démontre que le commentaire est une expression des environnements affectifs et matériels plutôt que soit, l'auto-expression voulue du locuteur ou soit, la manifestation de discours socialement et historiquement contingents. Troisièmement, il démontre que le commentaire peut à la fois fermer ou encourager des environnements spécifiques affectifs ou matériels. Quatrièmement, il démontre que le commentaire module les pouvoirs d'existence dans la zone de déplacement pendulaire, transformant les possibilités affectives immanentes à diverses situations.

Keywords::

• mobilities
• everyday life
• speech
• affect
• commentary
• commuting

Keywords::

• movilidades
• vida cotidiana
• el habla
• afecto
• comentario
• el viajar cotidiano

Keywords::

• mobilités
• vie quotidienne
• discours
• affect
• commentaire
• déplacement pendulaire

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the three reviewers for their helpful suggestions made on a previous version of the paper and David Conradson for his generous editorial advice and assistance. I would also like to thank Peter Thomas for providing valuable feedback. This paper benefitted from discussions at the AAG 2013 conference sessions on ‘Will Power: creative ontologies for changing difference’ as well as conversations with JD Dewsbury, Maria Hynes and Scott Sharpe. I would like to thank Deborah Rogers for undertaking the interview transcriptions.

Notes

^1. Some geographers have used ethnomethodology – the study of people's methods for producing recognisable social orders – as a technique that captures the detailed, in situ unfolding of speech in specific places. Eric Laurier's research on speech in transit environments is an apposite example of how this technique can be used to examine the intricacies of practices in situ.

^2. It might be surprising that something as routine as commuting actually requires any kinds of speaking in the first place. In Tuan's (1991) discussion of the relative absence of speech in research on practice, he notes that what is missed are ‘the discussions and commands crucial to the process of making anything that is not so routine as to be almost instinctive’ (p. 684, emphasis added). Whilst there is a familiarity to commuting such that it can ‘go without saying’ (Bourdieu, 1977), commuting is brimming with all kinds of speech, often connected to the practical aspects of journeying, but also to other aspects of life that people are working through, rather than the immediate commuting environs (Laurier & Lorimer, 2012).

^3. The majority of traffic reports come from the Australian Traffic Network (ATN). Established in 1998, the ATN is the largest traffic reporting network in Australia. Their traffic reports for Sydney have access to privileged information feeds from the New South Wales Road and Maritime Services, 450 traffic management cameras and information from the emergency services. Delivering traffic reports to more than 80 radio stations throughout Australia and televised traffic reports to three TV channels, ATN has a near monopoly on traffic reporting in Australia. Although most radio traffic reports are spoken from a studio, the helicopters that deliver live television reports suspended above the city are a familiar aspect of Sydney's commuting scene.

^4. These include @RMS Sydney Traffic, a feed provided by the New South Wales State Government; and @NRMA, a feed provided by the National Roads and Motorists’ Association.

^5. There are interesting parallels between traffic commentary and the shipping forecast broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in the UK from 1926 onwards. Indeed, as Chandler (in Power & Chandler, 1996) points out, whilst the messages in the shipping forecast serve as vital information for a small minority of people whose livelihoods are tied to the weather at sea, for many others listeners it is the mesmeric qualities of the shipping forecast that is a source of comfort, imagination, intimacy and pleasure.

^6. For example, Jensen's narrative exploration of the Alaskan highway in Seattle is an experiment in ‘voicing’ a transportation milieu, where the road itself speaks. His imaginary dialogue between the researcher and the road is ‘an attempt to articulate the view of complexity of contemporary infrastructures as being assembled by much more than just asphalt and steel’ (2012, p. 72). He says that ‘if we imagine that the Seawall [the road] can “speak” we might be able to better articulate the multiplicity and complexity of the development as seen from an illusory (and fictitious) vantage point’ (2012, 72).

^7. Its Latin etymological root, invention, reminds us that commentary has performative powers and thus is part of the generative creativity of the event itself.

Additional information

Funding

I acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award [grant number DE120102279] that enabled me to undertake this research project.