A bus as a compressed public space: Everyday multiculturalism in Milan

本文通过出行探索多样性与城市，从而未理解作为公共空间的公共交通做出贡献。我们研究了米兰 90/91 无轨电车的被压缩的流动空间。由于其行程和时间长，这辆巴士被不同种族、经济、社会和文化背景的公民密集使用。通过对交通方式的个人人类学研究，规划和交通方面的文献最近开始探索定性问题。尽管认识到公共交通在研究差异性调和方面的潜力，但对日常多元文化主义的研究很少采用这一特定的研究焦点，而是主要从社会人类学的角度入手。在此背景下，本项研究通过对车上人员、空间和行为的人类学探索来研究一辆公共汽车内被压缩的空间。值得注意的是，本文基于米兰理工大学城市规划与建筑专业三个硕士班级学生的直接观察，是对该教学项目成果的事后反思。基于这一经验，本文认为公共交通的被压缩和的流动空间是研究日常差异调和的绝佳观察点，也是更广泛的城市动态的绝佳观察站。此外，学生们的观察和经验所带来的观点的倍增已经证明，面对日益多样化的城市，多元化可能是一种关键的方法论进路。

The article contributes to understanding public transport as a public space by exploring diversity and the city through mobility. It investigates the compressed and mobile space of the 90/91 trolleybus in Milan. Due to its itinerary and extended schedule, this bus is intensively used by citizens with different ethnic, economic, social and cultural backgrounds. Literature on planning and transport has recently started exploring qualitative issues through individual ethnographic research on transport means. Research on everyday multiculturalism, despite recognising the role of public transport as a promising space to study the negotiation of difference, rarely adopts this specific focus and does it mainly from a socio-anthropological point of view. Against this background, the work investigates the compressed space of a bus through an ethnographic exploration of people, spaces and practices onboard. Notably, the article is grounded on direct observation carried out by three classes of students in the Urban Ethnography course offered in the MSc in Urban Planning and Architecture at Politecnico di Milano and presents a post-hoc reflection on the outcomes of the teaching project. Grounding on this experience, the article argues that the compressed and mobile space of public transport is an excellent observation point to investigate everyday negotiation of difference and a privileged observatory of broader city dynamics. Additionally, the multiplication of points of view embedded in the observations and experiences of students has proved how, in the face of increasingly diverse cities, pluralisation may be a key methodological approach.