Walking in the city: A case study of the streets in Brno

• Authors: Jana Kočková
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This paper is an ethnographic study of everyday walking practice in the city. The research was conducted in 2014-2015 in selected streets of Brno city and was based on a hybrid method of shared walking (go-along) coupled with observations and semi-structured interviews. As urban walking is recognized as a significant mode of travel, this paper aims to expand existing knowledge by contributing qualitative data. The key influence is the work of Michel de Certeau (1984) who understands walking as a practice of everyday life. Everyday walking helps shape physical spaces and this subsequently affects human behavior. In this article I will discuss how people relate to walking, how they act in urban space and what importance they attach to their behavior. Another aim is to ascertain how pedestrians behave while performing their everyday routine and how they interact with drivers and cyclists.

Keywords

EN

walking; pedestrian experience; urban mobility

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Human Affairs
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 422-439

Dates

published

2016-10-01

online

2016-10-17

Contributors

author

Jana Kočková

• Department of Sociology, Masaryk University, Joštova 10, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic

Identifiers

DOI

10.1515/humaff-2016-0036