How do embodied memories transmit the effects of movement between places, amongst things, and within people into the contemporary urban environment? In a part literary, part sociological account, a sociologist describes the sensations of Marcia, a Caribbean first generation immigrant to Britain, during a visit to an east London street market. In exploring the conditions that give rise to sensation, the narrative points towards a heterogeneity of movements that comprise sensation in heterological spaces. This underlines the multicultural constitution of seemingly mundane experiences and points towards the dynamism that the activation of this experience imparts to the contemporary city.
Alex Rhys-Taylor
is a sociologist at Goldsmiths College, London.