ePrints

Making Scents of Transition: Smellscapes and the Everyday in 'Old' and 'New' Urban Poland

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Martyna Sliwa

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.

Abstract

In this article, the growing body of literature on transition within central and eastern Europe is developed by exploring how discussing the senses may illuminate the experience of change to post-socialism for urban dwellers. After situating the study within the rich ethnographic heritage on urban transition, the key tenets of 'geographies of smell' are outlined as a means of inquiry which emphasises the lived, sensually embodied experience of transition. The empirical study is focused upon the interrogation of the meanings created by, and attached to, olfactory experience in contemporary Poland, discussing three motifs that highlight the symbolic and transformative role of smell in relation to transition. In understanding smell as playing an active role in the creation of meaning, not only are current debates surrounding geographies of smell extended, but it is argued that addressing the relatively neglected sensual dimension of the social provides an avenue into more nuanced dimensions of urban transition.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Sliwa M, Riach K

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Urban Studies

Year: 2012

Volume: 49

Issue: 1

Pages: 23-41

Print publication date: 12/04/2011

ISSN (print): 0042-0980

ISSN (electronic): 1360-063X

Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042098011399596

DOI: 10.1177/0042098011399596

Altmetrics

Share