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Convivial atmotechnics: Animating atmospheres of togetherness and indeterminacy in Kingston and Abidjan.

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Title: Convivial atmotechnics: Animating atmospheres of togetherness and indeterminacy in Kingston and Abidjan.
Authors: Osbourne, Alana1 (AUTHOR), Cante, Fabien2 (AUTHOR) f.cante@ucl.ac.uk
Source: Environment & Planning D: Society & Space. Oct2025, Vol. 43 Issue 5, p729-747. 19p.
Subject Terms: *URBAN studies, *ETHNOGRAPHIC analysis, *SPATIAL behavior, *INNER cities, *CITIES & towns in art, *SOCIAL stratification, *FRIENDSHIP, *CITIES & towns
Geographic Terms: ABIDJAN (Cote d'Ivoire), KINGSTON (N.Y.)
Abstract: This article draws on ethnographic work with tour guides in Kingston and local radio animateurs in Abidjan to document their "atmotechnics" – the practices through which they enliven urban atmospheres. Through cross-contextual juxtapositions, we delve into the relational intricacies and contextual variegation of atmotechnics. Crucially, we point to their complexity and significance in cities whose atmospheres are fractured by racialized socio-economic divides and practices of territorial control. We show that tour guides and radio hosts animate atmospheres of conviviality that are radically indeterminate: they evade and unsettle dominant models of "reconciliation" or "social cohesion," inviting us instead to think/feel commonality within and despite fractures. In making this argument, we contribute to scholarship on urban atmospheres, which acknowledges their political nature without considering the street-level agencies that shape them; and we extend scholarship that theorizes conviviality as a non-normative mode of interrelation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Database: Academic Search Index
Description
Abstract:This article draws on ethnographic work with tour guides in Kingston and local radio animateurs in Abidjan to document their "atmotechnics" – the practices through which they enliven urban atmospheres. Through cross-contextual juxtapositions, we delve into the relational intricacies and contextual variegation of atmotechnics. Crucially, we point to their complexity and significance in cities whose atmospheres are fractured by racialized socio-economic divides and practices of territorial control. We show that tour guides and radio hosts animate atmospheres of conviviality that are radically indeterminate: they evade and unsettle dominant models of "reconciliation" or "social cohesion," inviting us instead to think/feel commonality within and despite fractures. In making this argument, we contribute to scholarship on urban atmospheres, which acknowledges their political nature without considering the street-level agencies that shape them; and we extend scholarship that theorizes conviviality as a non-normative mode of interrelation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:02637758
DOI:10.1177/02637758241308102