Urban marginalia. Research field, objectives, methodology

Abstract

This article is an attempt to delineate a new area of urban research and to situate it in the space between predominantly socially engaged urban studies, drawing primarily on sociology and urban anthropology, and the borderland between academic humanities and the love of selected cities as cultural phenomena. This is exemplified in the article by so-called varsavianistyka, as the author’s main area of intellectual exploration remains the capital city. Urban marginalia, on the other hand, are presented as the subject of a new type of studies. Their resource is delineated by the most common phenomena and excesses of everyday life, which a researcher of everyday life, interested in the city, considers worthy of reflection, in spite of—and also because of—their absence in mainstream research. Having delimited the research field, the author presents the theoretical foundations of his proposal. In this respect, it proves crucial to situate reflections on urban marginalia in the context of anthropology and sociology of everyday life. The third part of the article is devoted to the method, framed in a triadic procedure: walking – collecting – understanding.