Taking the bus in peri-urban Mexico City: Bodily perspectives on own and urban becoming

摘要

This paper explores the movement of bodies in urbanising landscapes. In particular, it looks at the bodily practice that unfolds at a 'bus stop made by stopping buses' in peri-urban Mexico City. Doing so, I pursue three questions: What are the specificities of bodily practice in the peri-urban realm and out of what socio-material conditions do they emerge? How does this practice sit within notions of informality and cityness? And what urban imaginaries do peri-urban practitioners 'grow' out of their direct engagement with the material environment, that is, in this case, when taking buses? The bus stop in question is located in the municipality of Tecamac, State of Mexico, in the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City (ZMVM). It is a site of pure activity, social occurrence without being forged into built form; a site with 'nothing there' but the encounter of travellers and buses along the Mexico City-Pachuca highway. Carefully examining the seemingly banal activity of flagging down and boarding buses, however, allows us to take seriously the bodily and material dimensions of urban life and to acknowledge their influence on how city is made and thought. The paper draws on ethnographic research with a focus on visual and sensory methods.