Abstract
Our walking as tourists is in many respects different from our “non-tourist” or everyday walking. Building on John Urry’s well-known concept of the “tourist gaze”, I suggest the coinage of the “tourist gait” for describing a type of walking characterized, among other things, by a heightened awareness of sensory impressions and an active involvement with one’s surroundings. In this article, I explore how the tourist gait can be employed as a tactic for claiming and experiencing space in our home environs. By comparing tourist gait practices with the phenomenon of flânerie, the performance element contained in everyday pedestrianism emerges. Quotidian walking can demonstrate great creativity and is definitively much more than just a means of transportation.
Keywords
flânerie, tourism, walking practices, everyday life
How to Cite
Österlund-Pötzsch, S., (2010) “PEDESTRIAN ART”, Ethnologia Europaea 40(2), 14-28. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/ee.1066
Publisher Notes
- This article was previously published by Museum Tusculanum Press.