Perry – Deep mapping and emotion in place-writing practice

Cities, Capitalism and the Politics of Sensibilities This book explores the connections between the processes of social structuring and sensibilities in contemporary cities. The transformations of capitalism on a global scale imply reconfigurations both in the way of planning and organizing cities, and in the ways of dwelling and feeling them. The generalization of the urban, the suburbanization of the metropolis, and classified and racializing segregation, just to mention some significant phenomena, not only introduce changes linked to the forms of consumption of the city and the land, the appropriation and privatization of collective places, the strategic revaluation of urban times and spaces, or the establishment of new centralities. They also involve changes in sensibilities, which translate into substantial transformations in the lives of people and groups that dwell in cities in the Global North and South. Based on various empirical records and methodological procedures, the chapters included in this book establish a fertile dialogue between collaborators from different geo-cultural contexts that locate urban experiences and sensibilities as a point of articulation to address the processes of social structuring on a global scale. Chapter Mansfield, C., Shepherd, D., Wassler, P. (2021) Perry-Deep mapping and emotion in place-writing practice Abstract This chapter proposes a preparatory method for researchers and literary travel writers who are planning inquiry into a new urban space, with the French port city of Cherbourg, presented as a case study to illustrate this process. Using theory from Onfray, Bartlett and Patron, and travel writing from Ernaux, Barthes, Mann and Sebald the work develops the research instrument of the hexis for collecting and arranging knowledge discovered during archive searches and literary reading.