The sidewalk, waste and garbage collection: practices and representations of an “in-between place”

Abstract

The aim of this article is to grasp the nature of the representations generated by the sidewalk and to understand how they relate to the work of the garbage collector. Viewing the sidewalk as a place of various expectations reflected by its design, this article analyzes the way in which the representations of the sidewalk do or do not convey expectations of garbage collectors, and how garbage collectors are working with these expectations. Using a methodology that mixes press review and in situ observation, this article shows that the sidewalk is an “in-between-place” that is constantly being redefined. For residents, it is both an appropriated and a rejected place at once as well as a place of control, particularly over the work of garbage collectors. For the latter, the sidewalk is the site where most of their work invariably takes place, yet where that same work is undermined and frustrated with constraints. The challenges encountered by garbage workers consist in large part of the constraints posed by contemporary street furniture.