Assumptions about human behavior lie hidden in plain sight all around us, programmed into the design and regulation of the material objects we encounter on a daily basis. In the Midst of Things takes an in-depth look at the social lives of five objects commonly found in the public spaces of New York City and its suburbs, revealing how our interactions with such material things are our primary point of contact with the social, political, and economic forces that shape city life.
Drawing on groundbreaking fieldwork and a wealth of original interviews, Mike Owen Benediktsson shows how we are in the midst of things whose profound social role often goes overlooked. A newly built lawn on the Brooklyn waterfront reflects an increasingly common trade-off between the marketplace and the public good. A cement wall on a New Jersey highway speaks to the demise of the postwar American dream. A metal folding chair on a patch of asphalt in Queens exposes the political obstacles to making the city livable. A subway door expresses the simmering conflict between the city and the desires of riders, while a newsstand bears witness to our increasingly impoverished streetscapes.
In the Midst of Things demonstrates how the material realm is one of immediacy, control, inequality, and unpredictability, and how these factors frustrate the ability of designers, planners, and regulators to shape human behavior.
Mike Owen Benediktsson is associate professor of sociology at Hunter College, City University of New York, where he is affiliated with the Macaulay Honors College and the Graduate Center. He lives in South Orange, New Jersey. Twitter @MOBenediktsson
"[O]ne of the most thoughtful, articulate, and insightful texts I have read."鈥擲imon Atkinson, Journal of Urban Affairs
“Carefully observed and incisively reasoned, In the Midst of Things shows how public artifacts—the stuff of cities—intersect with lives and livelihoods. We learn just how material cultures, routine encounters, and political economies come together at thresholds, folding chairs, and highways that kill. An ingenious contribution.”—Harvey Molotch, author of Against Security: How We Go Wrong at Airports, Subways, and Other Sites of Ambiguous Danger
“Benediktsson offers brilliant insights into how objects structure human and nonhuman relationships, create and discourage publicness, and encode the unwritten rules of public culture. This lively and engaging book reveals that the interactions of people, design, and objects are never quite what urban planners intend.”—Setha Low, author of Spatializing Culture: The Ethnography of Space and Place
“This book takes objects as the primary lens through which to understand the social, cultural, political, and institutional processes that are in play in city spaces. This is a highly original and refreshing approach, offering insights into often ignored but hugely important artefacts that provide the conditions of possibility for social life to be enacted in particular ways.”—Sophie Watson, author of City Water Matters: Cultures, Practices, and Entanglements of Urban Water
