Abstract

This essay examines homogeneous, suburban commercial streets commonly found in the United States. These streets employ minutely regulated systems of order organized under the logic of automobile traffic. In a society where consumerism reigns, these streets and the spatial order they entail contribute significantly to the ideologies of everyday life. Because these streets rely almost entirely on driving, the walker opens a space of difference and rhetorical invention within these homogeneous spaces. Using Roxanne Mountford's notion of rhetorical space, I examine the fixity of these streets. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's theorization of abstract space, or overdetermined spaces that attempt to crush any agency, I consider how tactics such as walking can open permanent room for rhetorical agency in abstract spaces. By attending to a common but particular rhetorical space that figures materially in the everyday lives of American consumers, I explore the possibilities of agency in a fixed rhetorical space.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2012-01-01
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2011.622342
Open Access
Closed

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (8)

  1. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  4. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Show all 8 →
  1. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Rhetoric Society Quarterly

Cites in this index (3)

  1. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Also cites 6 works outside this index ↓
  1. Kolb , David.Sprawling Places. Athens : The University of Georgia Press , 2008 . Print .
  2. 10.1080/15295030903554391
  3. Norton , Peter D.Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City. Cambridge , MA : The MIT P…
  4. Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays in History, Theory, and Praxis
  5. 10.1080/10570310802210148
  6. 10.1111/j.1468-2885.2003.tb00295.x
CrossRef global citation count: 15 View in citation network →