Urban encounters: Performance and making urban worlds

Abstract

IN RECENT YEARS MOMENTUM HAS GATHERED BEHIND RESEARCH ACROSS THE SOCIAL SCIENCES THAT EMPHASISES THE ORDINARY AND UNSPECTACULAR WAYS IN WHICH PEOPLE LIVE TOGETHER IN CITIES, AND MUCH OF THE FOCUS HAS CENTRED ON AN INTELLECTUAL EXCITEMENT ABOUT URBAN ENCOUNTERS. THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES AND DEVELOPS HOW URBAN ENCOUNTERS HAVE BEEN THEORISED AND MOBILISED ACROSS THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN RESPONSE TO TALK OF CRISIS AND FAILURE OF LIVING WITH DIFFERENCE IN CITIES. SITUATED IN THE CONTACT ZONE BETWEEN SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES LIKE GEOGRAPHY, ANTHROPOLOGY, AND SOCIOLOGY AND ARTS PRACTICE, THE ARTICLE ARGUES FOR performative and more POLITICAL THEORISATIONS OF SPACES OF ENCOUNTER.. FOCUSING ON PHOTOGRAPHER MAHTAB HUSSAIN’S (2017) PROJECT YOU GET ME? THE ARTICLE EXAMINES HOW PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAITS OFFER ONE EXAMPLE OF A PERFORMATIVE ENCOUNTER THAT TAKES UP AS A POSITION IN THE POLITICS OF LIVED EXPERIENCE by carving out spaces where difference might be encountered in new ways, and by challenging viewers to imagine and enact new ways of being-in-common.