Urban Flaneur Guidebook

An urban flâneur is one who casually observes what is going on in an urban environment making critical observations while strolling about the city. A city planner collects data, attends meetings prepares future plans for a specific town, village, city or region. The flâneur is seen as operating in a fuzzy, objective/subjective and qualitative milieu; while, the urban planner is involved in quantifying and analyzing data (‘hard facts’), applying standards and regulations to aid in the effective and efficient operation of an urban area. The training that as a planner receives is based on the rationalist-lineal approach and does not include training about how to be a good observer in an urban environment. Most of all the public and the elected officials view the urban planner as a government employee who is at the disposal of elected officials and the public---a public servant. The idea of wandering about a city would not be considered productive or would be done on the off-hours. It woul...

I think it is good to revisit this topic as it needs more thought as a methodology of urban geography. I came across this interesting blog post by Fiona Ferbrache on Geography Directions: http://geographydirections.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/urban-geography-a-flaneurs-encounter-with-graffiti-in-toulouse/ The author discusses her weekend stroll in Toulouse, France, her encounter with urban graffiti and her take on what it means to be a flâneur. She also mentions a recent article about urban graffiti by of McAuliffe and Iveson’s (2011). People are making statements in the city continuously. Graffiti is a message to the inhabitants of the city drawing them into contemplation to its underground element, its lack of color, and public art. Reference: McAuliffe, C. and Iveson, K. (2011) Art and Crime (and Other Things Besides … ): Conceptualising Graffiti in the City. Geography Compass. 5,3. pp.128-143

This represents an 'on-the-fly' blog entry while I am in an airport waiting to board.  While on one surface, it is offers a place to people watch, it not a very tranquil place.   One is forced to listen to piped in music and other peoples conversations--particulalry if they are on cell phones.  Then, the constant announcements for people that are being paged for a flight.   I wonder if these people show up.  The best is when Americans slaughter foreign names.  The best accents for this is a New York accent or a deep South accent.  I can't blog anymore, as they are calling my flight.

I found a very interesting and well researched entry on Wikipedia concerning the word "flâneur".  Click on the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%A2neur  .  The basic meaning of "flâneur" is someone who strolls.  I think from viewing some of the entries here that it is far more than 'strolling.' It can be considered an entire methodology of research.  For a more developed version of what it means to be an urban  flâneur go to the article published in Urbana by Jesus Trevino: http://www.tamuk.edu/geo/urbana/Fall2006/flaneur.pdf