A Market Scene in Istanbul Summer 2010

I was going through my photographs the other day and came across this one. It speaks for itself.

What does it mean to be an urban flâneur?

I think it is good to revisit this topic as it needs more thought as a methodology of urban geography. I came across this interesting blog post by Fiona Ferbrache on Geography Directions: http://geographydirections.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/urban-geography-a-flaneurs-encounter-with-graffiti-in-toulouse/ The author discusses her weekend stroll in Toulouse, France, her encounter with urban graffiti and her take on what it means to be a flâneur. She also mentions a recent article about urban graffiti by of McAuliffe and Iveson’s (2011). People are making statements in the city continuously. Graffiti is a message to the inhabitants of the city drawing them into contemplation to its underground element, its lack of color, and public art.

Reference:
McAuliffe, C. and Iveson, K. (2011) Art and Crime (and Other Things Besides … ): Conceptualising Graffiti in the City. Geography Compass. 5,3. pp.128-143

Being an Urban Flâneur in an Airport

This represents an 'on-the-fly' blog entry while I am in an airport waiting to board.  While on one surface, it is offers a place to people watch, it not a very tranquil place.   One is forced to listen to piped in music and other peoples conversations--particulalry if they are on cell phones.  Then, the constant announcements for people that are being paged for a flight.   I wonder if these people show up.  The best is when Americans slaughter foreign names.  The best accents for this is a New York accent or a deep South accent.  I can't blog anymore, as they are calling my flight.

Wikipedia Definition of Flâneur

I found a very interesting and well researched entry on Wikipedia concerning the word "flâneur".  Click on the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%A2neur .  The basic meaning of "flâneur" is someone who strolls.  I think from viewing some of the entries here that it is far more than 'strolling.' It can be considered an entire methodology of research.  For a more developed version of what it means to be an urban  flâneur go to the article published in Urbana by Jesus Trevino: http://www.tamuk.edu/geo/urbana/Fall2006/flaneur.pdf

Call for Papers for Spring 2011 Volume of Urbana

Do you have a manuscript that has been waiting to be published? Why not think about sending it to Urbana. Urbana is a well respectied journal concerning urbanism. If you anticipate publishing in the Spring volume, please send me the title of the article with contact information and expected submission date at michaelamcadams@yahoo.com . The anticipated publication for the new volume is April 2011. At a later date selected articles will be published in printed form.

The link for Urbana is located at: http://www.tamuk.edu/geo/Urbana/