The Visual Commons: Where Residents Become Neighbors

Abstract

The concept of a “visual commons” ties together two key dimensions of how people live together: the expression and pursuit of individual and collective interests, and the expression and development of how residents see and visualize where they live. This concept has helped me think more critically about the relative contributions of cognitive maps, collective perspectives, and symbolic interaction to community studies. It's also been useful in revealing the visual ground against which residents figure the process of becoming neighbors and the disconnects that follow in how residents see where they're living and the natural environments they live within.

Citation

Wagner, J. (2023), "The Visual Commons: Where Residents Become Neighbors", Pauwels, L. (Ed.) Visual and Multimodal Urban Sociology, Part B (Research in Urban Sociology, Vol. 18B), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 63-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1047-00422023000018B003