TALK: The Local Orderliness of Crossing Kincaid
Kenneth Liberman (Sociology, University of Oregon)
Friday, February 23 / 1:30 PM
Phelps 2536

Traffic flow, pedestrian and vehicular, is self-organizing. At the corner of 13th and Kincaid (the busiest entry point to the University of Oregon campus), traffic laws and their formal, objective implications fail to contribute much to the local orderliness of crossing Kincaid. Instead, the students (pedestrians and drivers), bicyclists, city buses, skateboarders, tourists, panhandlers, Fed-Ex trucks, ambulances from the nearby hospital, etc. have their own ways of effectively concerting their crossings. The city officials acknowledge this local expertise by desisting from enforcement of traffic regulations at this intersection. They recognize that the goings on there are too complex to be governed centrally by rational predications and that sanctioned rules for crossing Kincaid would only further complicate the situation. Various cohorts of crossers celebrate this expertise, which is at once their micro-accomplishment and a macro-order. Since their local orderlinesses are authochthonous, they can only be discovered. Teams of university students videotaped the local work of crossing at various times of day and from different angles. A video-clip based presentation describes the details that comprise the principal recurring orderlinesses of crossing Kincaid.

Sponsored by the IHC’s Language, Interaction, and Social Organization (LISO) Research Focus Group

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