Playing with railways! Popular appropriation and playful acting in case of railway transportation and model railways

摘要

HoErz' edited book is dedicated to different kinds of playing and leisure activities connected to the railway system and to railway technology. It is based on a broad, comprehensive understanding of the German expression 'Spiel', which covers 'play' and 'game'. The author's key questions are as follows: (i) how the cultural appropriation of railways is mirrored by more or less playful acting, (ii) what the actors' approaches to their hobby are and (iii) what about the actors' political and societal backgrounds. Contributors discuss different settings and scales of the railway system in historical and contemporarily perspective: private model railways, the role of models in museums, nostalgic railway lines, as well as abandoned lines and attempts to preserve buildings or carriages as items of cultural heritage. The book is based on the editor's teaching project in cultural anthropology at GoEttingen University.