Attachments to the common-place: pragmatic sociology and the aesthetic cosmopolitics of eco-house design in Kyoto, Japan
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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.
Original language | English |
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Journal | European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 2 |
Pages (from-to) | 122-145 |
ISSN | 2325-4823 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
ID: 153335028