TY - JOUR
T1 - Attachments to the common-place
T2 - pragmatic sociology and the aesthetic cosmopolitics of eco-house design in Kyoto, Japan
AU - Blok, Anders
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - This article builds on ethnographic work concerning on-going collective efforts in the Japanese city of Kyoto aiming to reposition a vernacular style of wooden housing, known as kyō-machiya, into a hybrid eco-design widely considered an appropriate local response to the global challenges of climate change. To understand the dynamic interplay of architecture and community-building in this case, the article stages a theoretical debate on the politics of shared attachments between three proponents of French pragmatic sociology: Bruno Latour, Antoine Hennion, and Laurent Thévenot. Drawing in particular on Thévenot's notion of ‘commonality in the plural’, the article shows how a range of personal affinities to the architectural form of the kyō-machiya, positioned as an urban ‘common-place’, serves to coordinate across otherwise divergent interests. By taking seriously the role of attachments to common-places, the article concludes, pragmatic sociology helps focus attention on the aesthetic (cosmo-)politics at stake in contemporary urban ecology worldwide.
AB - This article builds on ethnographic work concerning on-going collective efforts in the Japanese city of Kyoto aiming to reposition a vernacular style of wooden housing, known as kyō-machiya, into a hybrid eco-design widely considered an appropriate local response to the global challenges of climate change. To understand the dynamic interplay of architecture and community-building in this case, the article stages a theoretical debate on the politics of shared attachments between three proponents of French pragmatic sociology: Bruno Latour, Antoine Hennion, and Laurent Thévenot. Drawing in particular on Thévenot's notion of ‘commonality in the plural’, the article shows how a range of personal affinities to the architectural form of the kyō-machiya, positioned as an urban ‘common-place’, serves to coordinate across otherwise divergent interests. By taking seriously the role of attachments to common-places, the article concludes, pragmatic sociology helps focus attention on the aesthetic (cosmo-)politics at stake in contemporary urban ecology worldwide.
U2 - 10.1080/23254823.2015.1108212
DO - 10.1080/23254823.2015.1108212
M3 - Journal article
VL - 2
SP - 122
EP - 145
JO - European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology
JF - European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology
SN - 2325-4823
IS - 2
ER -