Article ID: CBB952420851

Fetishising the Brussels roadscape (June 2020)

unapi

Claire Pelgrims (Author)


The Journal of Transport History
Volume: 41
Issue: 1
Pages: 89-115


Publication Date: June 2020
Edition Details: Special Issue: The Historical ironies of Roads
Language: English

This explorative paper is an attempt to improve understanding of the material infrastructure and subjective affective investments into it. Building on the concept of “fetish”, it proposes a theoretical framework to analyse the entanglement of the functional, sensitive and social symbolic dimensions of Brussels’ “modern roads” to reinforce and stabilise a social imaginary of fast mobility. Examining technical reports, political discourses, press articles and cultural productions such as movies, TV broadcasts and photographs relating to the infrastructuring process, the paper reveals – beyond the case study – the aesthetic dimension of the modernisation of roads, which relates to symbolic investments in cars. The theoretical framework involves heuristic values when regarded beyond this specific Belgian context. It opens new possibilities for broader interpretations of the mobility infrastructure.

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Included in

Article De Greiff A. Alexis; Hård Mikael (June 2020) The historical ironies of roads. The Journal of Transport History (pp. 3-5). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB952420851/

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Authors & Contributors
Zeller, Thomas
Chamberlain, Von Del
Chatzis, Konstantinos
Clarke, Philip A.
Grafton, Anthony T.
Harris, A. Katie
Journals
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage
Acta Historica Astronomiae
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Technology and Culture
Transfers
International Journal of Historical Archaeology
Publishers
The MIT Press
Johns Hopkins University Press
Lexington Books
Ohio University Press
Pennsylvania State University Press
Princeton University Press
Concepts
Roads and highways
Landscape; landscapes
Automobiles
Relics; fetishes
Science and religion
Automobility
People
Duerbeck, Hilmar W.
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
16th century
14th century
15th century
17th century
Places
United States
Brussels (Belgium)
Europe
British Columbia (Canada)
Israel
New Mexico (U.S.)
Institutions
University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
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