Marginality in train stations – the making of the norm in a (simili-)public space.

Abstract

Train stations – those dedicated to passengers – host a variety of uses and interactions. As such, they are a social laboratory and their study reveals the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion as well as individual and collective mobilisation.

They are not public spaces, but "mass private properties" (Shearing and Stenning, 1983): external visitors are massively welcomed, provided they comply with the normative regime established by the landowner.

However, the “universal hospitality” that characterises public spaces according to Joseph (1998, p.23) is an ideal type that does not correspond to any empirical reality. Access to and use of public spaces are always conditioned by norms (Pellegrino et al., 1990). Even the Greek agora or the European city squares – often held up as models of public space – are very unequally accessible (Blanchard et al., 2021).

Thus, the characteristics of the most-public part of the station (i.e. spaces and temporalities that are accessible to the general public without any condition of status nor any transaction) are more or less those of a public space: urban places that offer multiple affordances (Gibson, 2014[1979]) and virtualities (Lévy, 2013).

As a (simili-)public space, the station is therefore organised according to "stabilised practices" determined by norms (Picon, 2018). As such, it is a "space for the production of citizenship" (Neveu, 2013, p. 207). In exchange for respecting the norms and civic duties imposed by the place, user-citizens are authorised to access, reside in and fully benefit from the station spacetime, as well as to participate directly or indirectly in the consultations organised by the governing bodies (Rudler, 2018; Jørgensen, 2022).

The existence of norms implies the existence of deviance (Pellegrino et al., 1990). Railway stations are “taken over by people who divert them from their normal use [and] carry out parallel, marginal activities" (Actions Solidarité SNCF, 1995, p. 5 cited in : Ribeil, 1996). In order to clarify the manifestations of the train-station-citizenship, I will focus on non-citizen users and the dynamics of their marginalisation (Neveu, 2013; Lazar, 2019), as well as on the various forms of negotiation that emerge from discordant practices. Indeed, any marginal action subverts the norm (even unconsciously) and as such constitutes a form of claim (Jeudy, 1990).

How does the study of marginal behaviour in railway stations allow us to rethink, update and even go beyond the notion of public space?

First, I will try to fill the gaps in the notion of public space, whether in its ability to qualify the “mass private properties” that are railway stations, or in its ability to consider spatial inequalities (Ripoll and Veschambre, 2006; Blanchard et al., 2021) and strategies – individual and collective – of conflict (Lussault, 2009). To do this, I will draw on notions of community, citizenship, normality and marginality. I will then describe the normative regime (discourses, mechanisms, representations, arrangements) that emanate from the station and the forms of distinction and even discrimination that result.

As well as contributing to the hospitality of railway stations (and other public-like spaces), my aim is to reveal a margin for innovation. Indeed, small steps lead to big changes, and a once isolated behaviour could become a major trend in the years to come. Therefore, studying marginal behaviour allows us to get a head start in thinking about the public spaces of tomorrow.

My research is based on mixed methods: participant observation at AREP (an architectural agency, subsidiary of SNCF group); a review of transdisciplinary literature; interviews with elites from the world of transport; and a series of ethnographically inspired observations carried out at Paris Saint-Lazare and Turin Porta Nuova stations.