Material agencies of survival: Street vending on a Roman bridge

Piazzoni, Francesca ORCID: 0000-0002-6674-8463 (2022) Material agencies of survival: Street vending on a Roman bridge. Cities, 123. p. 103412.

Text
FINAL_Piazzoni_22_Material agencies of survival.pdf - Author Accepted Manuscript
Download (971kB) | Preview

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2021.103412

Abstract

The material fabric of a city is never neutral. It speaks to the opportunities of access and usage that some are given at the exclusion of others. Scholars of the everyday have analyzed how city residents counter oppression by appropriating and transforming spaces. Less attention, however, has been given to how not only people, but also material things have agency in producing opportunities for insurgency. This paper examines how people and materialities imbricate, co-producing geographies of survival on Ponte Sant'Angelo, a bridge in Rome where diverse immigrants eke out a living by selling trinkets. Interviews and observations revealed that both seniority on the street and immigration status divide vendors into three groups, each with a different degree of power over other users of the bridge. At the same time, Ponte Sant'Angelo, a physical entity made by permanent built forms as well as contingent elements such as water levels and car traffic, generate five distinct areas, each with a different degree of attractiveness in the eyes of diverse vendors. Differences across vendors and material elements intertwine with one another. The nitty-gritty of the city, its seemingly banal materialities, partner with vendors as they negotiate power and counter exclusion. These circumstances call for expanding scholarship of the everyday, exploring how multiple, interdependent agencies shape urban patterns of oppression and resistance.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	31 Jan 2022 09:33
Last Modified:	09 Mar 2024 09:21
DOI:	10.1016/j.cities.2021.103412
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3147817