Populations and rhythms in contemporary cities

Abstract

The chapter focuses on the importance to consider mobility practices characterising contemporary cities in the perspective of urban populations. Starting from the interpretation of mobility practices by different populations in terms of urban rhythms, the chapter analyse temporary populations as “groups of subjects that, temporarily and intermittently, share practices of daily life”. Urban populations, exactly because of their variety and considering the impossibility to constrain themselves into logics of identity and representation, may in fact generate new claims, but also new common goods, without necessarily operating as intentional actors in public policies. In this perspective, it is crucial to construct mobility policies that match up to the degree of mutation and complexity of the city, of the territories and of their relationship with living worlds, and with the radical irreducibility and plurality of spatial and temporal patters of urban populations.