Wirdelöv, Johan
(2020).
The trash bin on stage: on the sociomaterial roles of street furniture.
Urban planning. 5
, 121–131
[Journal article]
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Abstract
They are easily overlooked, but benches, trash bins, drinking fountains, bike stands, ashtray bins, and bollards do influence our ways of living. Street furniture can encourage or hold back behaviours, support different codes of conduct, or express the values of a society. This study is developed from the observation that the number of different roles taken on by street furniture seem to quickly increase in ways not attended to. We see new arrivals such as recycled, anti-homeless, skateboard-friendly, solar-powered, storytelling, phone-charging and event-making furniture entering public places. What are typical sociomaterial roles that these things play in urban culture of today? How do these roles matter? This article suggests a conceptualisation of three furniture roles: Carnivalesque street furniture takes part in events and temporary places. Behaviourist street furniture engages in how humans act in public. Cabinet-like street furniture makes itself heard through relocating shapes of other objects. These categories lead to two directions for further research; one concerning the institutions behind street furniture, and one concerning how street furniture shapes cities through influencing different kinds of ‘scapes.’ The aim of this article is to advance theory on an urban material culture that is evolving faster and faster. By conceptualising this deceptively innocent group of things and articulating its relations to the everyday structures of the city, I hope to provide a framework for further studies.
Authors/Creators: | Wirdelöv, Johan | ||||
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Title: | The trash bin on stage: on the sociomaterial roles of street furniture | ||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||
Volume: | 5 | ||||
Page range: | 121–131 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 11 | ||||
ISSN: | 2183–7635 | ||||
Language: | English | ||||
Publication Type: | Journal article | ||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||
Version: | Published version | ||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 4 Agricultural Sciences > 401 Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries > Landscape Architecture (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 6 Humanities > 604 Arts > Design (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 6 Humanities > 605 Other Humanities > Cultural Studies | ||||
Keywords: | everyday life, material culture, public space, sociomaterial densification, street furniture | ||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-109129 | ||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-109129 | ||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 19149 | ||||
Faculty: | LTV - Fakulteten för landskapsarkitektur, trädgårds- och växtproduktionsvetenskap | ||||
Department: | (LTJ, LTV) > Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management | ||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||
Deposited On: | 10 Dec 2020 13:45 | ||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2021 19:47 |
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