European Metroscapes: the production of lived mobilities within the socio-technical Metro systems in Copenhagen, London and Paris

In this paper the aim is to show a mobile ethnographic account for the way lived everyday life mobilities are produced within the socio-technical systems of the Metros in Copenhagen, London and Paris. By drawing upon field studies of the physical orchestration of passenger flows as well as the regulatory passenger identity interpellations within these technical systems it is shown how mobile urbanites are constructed as well as they are performing mobility within these systems. The research aim to show that there is a top-down organisation of the material flows and regulatory arrangements creating ‘real passengers' as well as imaginary ‘mobile subjects'. On the other hand the everyday life mobility practices are not completely determined by such top-down systems as they are played out and performed in multiple ways and thus creating lacunas of ‘other ways' of perceiving the systems as environments for mundane flows. In fact it is in the crossing between such top-down orchestration of mobility and the everyday life performances that the socio-technical metro systems produce culture. Much more than moving people from A to B, the socio-technical metro systems facilitate the meaningful and mobile engagement between systems, objects, humans and the city. However, from the three cases it is shown that this is done in different ways depending on whether one performs mobility within the metro in Copenhagen, London or Paris. Rather than being a comparative study of these three metros the paper aims to explore these thematically in order to illustrate the differences but also the overlapping ways European Metroscapes produces lived mobilities. Methodologically the paper is based on a series of recurrent field trips to the three metros from 2006 to 2008. Theoretically the paper aims to bridge elements from STS with theories from relational geography, critical mobility studies and urban design.