The image of the city as a stressful place is an evergreen topic. In this article we review the imagination of urban stress, starting from Simmel’s classic thesis that the modern city is an unavoidably psychic-stimulating environment potentially leading to stimuli overload. City dwellers are then supposed to counter stimuli overload with a series of adaptation strategies. However, the ways in which these phenomena can be conceptualised are varied. Historically, a shift of emphasis seems to have occurred from the classic conceptualisation of hyperaesthesia to the contemporary preoccupations with the design of comfortable atmospheres. Such atmospheres are, in fact, comfort bubbles. In the article, we tackle the aspirations and predicaments of such engineered atmospheres. In particular, we build on Sloterdijk’s argument that, ultimately, bubbles fail to do away with stress, whereas for Simmel stress anaesthetised urbanites, Sloterdijk has pointed out that, rather, comfort itself stresses them. To better tackle the magmatic stratum of dissatisfaction that seems so coessential to urban life, in the final part of the article we focus on the notion of animosity. We suggest to conceptualise it as a type of disquiet that cannot be reduced to established recognisable interaction formats.

City of unpleasant feelings: Stress, comfort and animosity in urban life / Mubi Brighenti, Andrea; Pavoni, Andrea. - In: SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY. - ISSN 1464-9365. - 2019, 20:2(2019), pp. 137-156. [10.1080/14649365.2017.1355065]

City of unpleasant feelings: Stress, comfort and animosity in urban life

Mubi Brighenti, Andrea;Pavoni, Andrea
2019-01-01

Abstract

The image of the city as a stressful place is an evergreen topic. In this article we review the imagination of urban stress, starting from Simmel’s classic thesis that the modern city is an unavoidably psychic-stimulating environment potentially leading to stimuli overload. City dwellers are then supposed to counter stimuli overload with a series of adaptation strategies. However, the ways in which these phenomena can be conceptualised are varied. Historically, a shift of emphasis seems to have occurred from the classic conceptualisation of hyperaesthesia to the contemporary preoccupations with the design of comfortable atmospheres. Such atmospheres are, in fact, comfort bubbles. In the article, we tackle the aspirations and predicaments of such engineered atmospheres. In particular, we build on Sloterdijk’s argument that, ultimately, bubbles fail to do away with stress, whereas for Simmel stress anaesthetised urbanites, Sloterdijk has pointed out that, rather, comfort itself stresses them. To better tackle the magmatic stratum of dissatisfaction that seems so coessential to urban life, in the final part of the article we focus on the notion of animosity. We suggest to conceptualise it as a type of disquiet that cannot be reduced to established recognisable interaction formats.
2019
2
Mubi Brighenti, Andrea; Pavoni, Andrea
City of unpleasant feelings: Stress, comfort and animosity in urban life / Mubi Brighenti, Andrea; Pavoni, Andrea. - In: SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY. - ISSN 1464-9365. - 2019, 20:2(2019), pp. 137-156. [10.1080/14649365.2017.1355065]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/193211
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