The recent growth of sociological attention towards everyday life (both as empirical domain and theoretical perspective) raises the issue of how different research approaches build the link between the «part» they study and the «whole» to which it refers to. The paper proposes a research perspective on situated urban interactions which allows the overcoming of three analytical limits recurring in how the link «part/whole» is recurrently built in a variety of research practices. Both the limits and the proposal developed to address them are introduced discussing the empirical evidences collected between 2012 and 2014 in the area of Via Padova, in Milan. In particular, three cases of typically urban interactions are addressed: the everyday exchanges among passing strangers on the sidewalk, the participation to a festive «multiethnic parade» and the devastations occurred during an improvised street demonstration. The variety of the chosen cases and of the techniques adopted for studying them allow to illustrate the theoretical peculiarity of the proposed perspective, based on the analysis of the relationship between the interaction styles and the scenes in which they are practiced. The benefits associated to the proposed perspective are discussed with respect to its possible extension in the analysis of other empirical domains (than those addressed in the paper) and in relation to its application to both single case-studies and to heterogeneous inventories of cases referring to the same local context.
La vivacità della recente ricerca sociologica focalizzata sulla vita quotidiana (sia come ambito empirico sia come prospettiva teorica) solleva la questione delle modalità di costruzione del nesso parte/tutto associate a diverse prospettive d’indagine. L’articolo propone un approccio di ricerca sull’interazione situata in contesti urbani che consente di superare tre limiti analitici ricorrenti nel modo in cui tale nesso prende forma all’interno di numerose pratiche di ricerca. Sia i limiti evidenziati sia la proposta formulata sono introdotti discutendo il materiale empirico raccolto dal 2012 al 2014 nell’area di via Padova a Milano, in particolare analizzando tre casi d’interazioni situate tipicamente urbane: lo scambio quotidiano fra passanti sul marciapiede, la partecipazione ad una festosa “parata multietnica” e le devastazioni occorse durante un’improvvisata manifestazione di protesta. La diversità dei casi scelti e delle tecniche di ricerca adottate per il loro studio illustra la specificità teorica della prospettiva proposta, basata sull’analisi del rapporto tra stili d’interazione e scene in cui sono praticati. I benefici associati all’approccio illustrato sono discussi con riferimento alla sua possibile estensione ad altri ambiti d’indagine e rispetto alla sua applicazione sia a singoli studi di caso sia ad “inventari di casi” tra loro eterogenei ma riferiti allo stesso contesto locale.
Citroni, S. (2016). Urban scene styles. The link «part/whole» in Via Padova and beyond. RASSEGNA ITALIANA DI SOCIOLOGIA, 57(2), 321-348 [10.1423/83816].
Urban scene styles. The link «part/whole» in Via Padova and beyond
CITRONI, SEBASTIANO
2016
Abstract
The recent growth of sociological attention towards everyday life (both as empirical domain and theoretical perspective) raises the issue of how different research approaches build the link between the «part» they study and the «whole» to which it refers to. The paper proposes a research perspective on situated urban interactions which allows the overcoming of three analytical limits recurring in how the link «part/whole» is recurrently built in a variety of research practices. Both the limits and the proposal developed to address them are introduced discussing the empirical evidences collected between 2012 and 2014 in the area of Via Padova, in Milan. In particular, three cases of typically urban interactions are addressed: the everyday exchanges among passing strangers on the sidewalk, the participation to a festive «multiethnic parade» and the devastations occurred during an improvised street demonstration. The variety of the chosen cases and of the techniques adopted for studying them allow to illustrate the theoretical peculiarity of the proposed perspective, based on the analysis of the relationship between the interaction styles and the scenes in which they are practiced. The benefits associated to the proposed perspective are discussed with respect to its possible extension in the analysis of other empirical domains (than those addressed in the paper) and in relation to its application to both single case-studies and to heterogeneous inventories of cases referring to the same local context.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.