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THE AGENCY OF SMALL THINGS

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Chapter 1:
The agency of small things: indicators of ownership on the streets of Liverpool and Belfast

David Littlefield

Streets are undesigned as much as they are designed. Markers and traces of occupation, ownership and belonging can shape streetscapes beyond the designed intention of architect, planner or urbanist. These signs and visual clues can have a transformative effect, and thus can be considered as having agency – they are ‘things’ of the street just as level changes and building surfaces are things. It is important that all stakeholders concerned with the life of the street consider the agency of small, post hoc and undesigned details – their power is far in excess of their physical presence.

About David Littlefield

David Littlefield is Senior Lecturer at the University of Westminster,London, where he leads the Masters programme in Interior Architecture.David’s research focuses on place, architectural ‘voice’ and there presentation of historic surfaces through time. He has written widelyon subjects ranging from transgression to urban regeneration.

All chapters

Part 1: The social life of everyday streets

Agustina Martire, Birgit Hausleitner and Jane Clossick

Chapter 1: The agency of small things: indicators of ownership on the streets of Liverpool and Belfast

David Littlefield

Chapter 2: Rituals of O’Connell Street: commemoration, display and dissent

Kate Buckley

Chapter 3: Street life in medieval London

James Davis

Chapter 4: Who owns the street? The cases of Lange Reihe and Steindamm in Hamburg

Bedour Braker

Chapter 5: Streets after dark: the experiences of women, girls and gender-diverse people

Gill Matthewson, Nicole Kalms, Jess Berry and Gene Bawden

Chapter 6: A tourist catwalk: the pedestrianisation of Rua das Portas de Santo Antão, Lisbon

Manuel João Ramos

Chapter 7: The streets that were there are gone… but Sailortown’s stories remain

Agustina Martire and Aisling Madden

Part 2: The form and use of everyday streets

Birgit Hausleitner, Jane Clossick and Agustina Martire

Chapter 8: Vicoli as forms of proximity: Naples’ Spanish Quarter

Orfina Fatigato

Chapter 9: Spatial-structural qualities of mixed-use main streets: two case studies from the Amsterdam metropolitan region

Birgit Hausleitner and Mae-Ling Stuyt

Chapter 10: Kiruna, lost and found: identity and memory in the streetspace of an Arctic town

Maria Luna Nobile

Chapter 11: Foundational economy and polycentricity in the five squares of the pedestrian zone of Favoritenstrasse, Vienna

Sigrid Kroismayr and Andreas Novy

Chapter 12: Reclaiming streets for people in urban India

Deepti Adlakha

Chapter 13: Investing in (post-Covid) street appeal

Matthew Carmona

Part 3: Localography

Jane Clossick, Birgit Hausleitner and Agustina Martire

Chapter 14: Learning from Castleblayney: conversation and action in a small Irish town

Miriam Delaney and Orla Murphy

Chapter 15: Co-drawing: a design methodology for collective action

Antje Steinmuller and Christopher Falliers

Chapter 16: An inventory of the street: case studies from Montréal

Carole Lévesque and Thomas-Bernard Kenniff

Chapter 17: A walk between disciplines: listening to the composition of Ormeau Road

Elen Flügge (text and recordings) and Timothy Waddell (drawings)

Chapter 18: Mapping everyday heritage practices: Tivoli Barber Shop on North Street

Anna Skoura

Chapter 19: Urban depth and social integration on super-diverse London high streets

Jane Clossick and Rebecca Smink

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