Rethinking the Geographies of Walkability in Small City Centers

Abstract

What can be learned from conversations about walkability per se and specific ideas about the embodied geographies of walking? In this article, we work with the idea of a walking assemblage and the related concept of territory to clarify how social and material entities might promote or impede journeys on foot. Our analysis is grounded in ethnographic data collected about everyday walking among twenty-five residents in the center of Wollongong, a small city on the east coast of Australia. In presenting our interpretation, we attend to the embodied geographies of walkability. The concept of territory offers the potential to think about walkability as both performed and enfolded via the emotional and affective forces between and through proximate bodies and objects through processes of reterritorialization and deterritorialization. Although our case study is specific, our conceptual gaze is extensive and has salience for others concerned with walking, with small cities, and with thinking about how best to foster the conditions in which people thrive. We offer theoretical and policy-relevant conclusions that signal the importance of engaging with the nuances of the embodied geographies of walking.

我们能从可步行性本身以及有关身体化的步行地理之特殊概念的对话中学到什麽？我们于本文中，运用步行凑组及相关的领域概念，釐清社会与物质实体如何可能促进或阻碍步行旅程。我们的分析是根据在澳大利亚东岸一座名为卧龙岗的小型城市中心对二十五位居民所进行的每日步行经验之民族志数据。我们在呈现诠释中，关照可步行性的身体化地理。领域的概念，提供了潜力思考可步行性同时作为通过再领域化与去领域化的过程中，紧邻的身体与物件之间和穿透其中的情绪与情感驱力的展现与笼罩。尽管我们的案例研究是特定的，但我们的概念视角是广泛的，并且对其他考量小城市中的步行与思考如何能够最佳地促进人们生活条件之研究而言具有显着性 。我们提供理论与政策相关之结论，标示出涉入步行的身体化地理的细微差异之重要性。

¿Qué puede aprenderse de las conversaciones acerca de la facilidad peatonal de los lugares en sí misma y sobre las ideas específicas acerca de las geografías personificadas de la caminata? En este artículo trabajamos con la idea de un ensamblaje de la caminata y del concepto relacionado de territorio para clarificar cómo las entidades sociales y materiales podrían promover u obstaculizar los desplazamientos a pie. Nuestro análisis se fundamenta en datos etnográficos recogidos sobre la caminata cotidiana entre veinticinco residentes en el centro de Wollongong, una pequeña ciudad de la costa oriental de Australia. Al presentar nuestra interpretación, atendemos a las geografías personificadas de la facilidad peatonal del lugar. El concepto de territorio tiene potencial para pensar de la facilidad peatonal tanto representada como circundada vía fuerzas emocionales y afectivas entre y a través de cuerpos próximos y objetos, por medio de procesos de reterritorialización y desterritorialización. Aunque el caso de estudio es específico, nuestra mirada conceptual es extensiva y tiene prominencia para otros preocupados con la caminata, con ciudades pequeñas y con el pensar acerca de la mejor manera de estimular las condiciones dentro de las cuales la gente prospera. Presentamos conclusiones teóricas y políticamente relevantes que señalan la importancia de involucrarse con las tonalidades de las geografías personificadas de la caminata.

Key Words:

• anthropic and misanthropic accounts
• body
• identity
• territorialization
• sensory walking ethnography
• Wollongong
• Australia

关键词:

• 人类与遁世者解释
• 身体
• 认同
• 领域化
• 感知的行走民族志
• 卧龙岗
• 澳大利亚。

Palabras clave:

• Australia
• cuerpo
• etnografía sensorial de la caminata
• identidad
• recuentos antrópicos y misantrópicos
• territorialización
• Wollongong

Notes

1 Crown Street is Wollongong’s main street and has been so since a cattle track formed in the early nineteenth century from grazing areas on Mount Keira to the region’s first farm. It is now the main arterial route through the city, with all of the corollaries that implies. Part of the street has been converted to a pedestrian mall, and its length is characterized by differing ambiences from upmarket commercial center to areas of significant dilapidation. MacCabe Park was established in 1855 from a land grant provided by the governor of New South Wales. Its northern end abuts the commercial precinct and has a playground and youth center with skate park and graffiti-art walls, art gallery, war memorial, and plantings. To the east is a community hall and carpark. The rest of the park is primarily composed of lawns and pathways, an artificial hillock, and brick amphitheater, and the area becomes increasingly underutilized to the south, which is often occupied by those living in precarity.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gordon Waitt

GORDON WAITT is Head of the School of Geography and Sustainable Communities at Wollongong University, Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include sustainable urban development and mobility.

Elaine Stratford

ELAINE STRATFORD is a Professor at the Institute for the Study of Social Change College of Arts, Law and Education, University of Tasmania. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include educational attainment and social change.

Theresa Harada

THERESA HARADA is a Research Associate at the School of Geography and Sustainable Communities at Wollongong University, Wollongong, NSW 2500, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include sustainability and mobility.