Wiener Urbanitäten: Kulturwissenschaftliche Ansichten einer Stadt ed. by Brigitta Schmidt-Lauber et al. (review)

The coeditor Brigitta Schmidt-Lauber, in her brief introduction, is persuasive in her conviction that an ethnographically informed approach to analyze various sites in Vienna should neither be united by a single methodology nor be comprehensive or systematic. However, after reading the nineteen essays, the initial welcome for randomness in regard to the range of topics and locations—and for heterogeneity in regards to methodology or style of writing—morphed into a desire for greater rigor in terms of definitions and methodology. To this extent, the four broad categories of “Orte, Szenen, Bewegungen, Eindrücke,” in which the editors thematically grouped the articles seem rather arbitrary as an organizing principle. One is therefore thankful for the excellent bibliographical information that follows each essay, and in general for the wonderful layout that could have been even more rewarding with additional black and white photographs.

One of the more remarkable essays is certainly the opening chapter by Elke Krasny, entitled “Vom Recht auf Erinnerung im Garten der Rosen.” Krasny combines literary sensitivity with scholarly qualities of historical research by balancing her own observations and positioning of the Rosengarten in summer 2012 with her goal to uncover a chapter of feminist activism taking place in 1848. The reader will certainly remember next time she enters the Volksgarten that it was here where women from all classes formed the first “Frauenverein” in order to fight for their democratic rights.

One of the editors, Jens Wietschorke, also is able to convincingly juxtapose two seeming opposites, namely how the Staatsoper as a “Sakralbezirk” (Lutz Musner) of highbrow culture constitutes itself by domesticating lowbrow culture. Wietschorke does so by first linking the history of the Volksoper to the Staatsoper, then by contrasting the “opera toilet” in the Opernpassage or “Unterwelt” to the mighty “Oberwelt” for refined aesthetic consumption, before he, in a third step, theoretically reflects on how the unstable dichotomy of “high” and “low” is constantly renegotiated socially, culturally, and spatially.

Compared with these two essays that display a high degree of theoretical underpinnings towards their chosen “Orte,” articles by Herbert Nikitsch on the historical context of the Nibelungenviertel in the 15th District or by Anton Tantner on the “Informationsvermittlung im 18. Jahrhundert: Das Wiener Frag-undKundschaftsamt” are, while informative and well researched, both marked by a more traditional historical recount of their respective topic.

How one does disservice to the young and hybrid discipline of Kulturwissenschaft is shown in Jochen Bonze’s “Das Gesprächssummen: Freundchaftlichkeit als Erscheinungsform der Fußballbegeisterung auf der Friedhofstribüne des Wiener Sportclub-Platzes.” This cumbersome subtitle unfortunately is indicative of what follows. Despite the attempt to put his “Eindrücke” on a theoretical footing by referring to Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory or concepts of soundscape studies, Bonz’s essay displays a discrepancy between his own claims and rather pedestrian findings.

A similar form of incongruity occurs in Ana Rogojanu’s essay, “Auf den Spuren städtischer Atmosphären,” when she first asserts Gernot Böhme’s methodology of “Atmosphäre” and its variant by Jean-Paul Thibaud before she articulates the observations by three acquaintances who walked from the Gürtel toward Josefstadt. Because these remain so predictable, it seems that the author herself expresses doubts about such a vague “Atmosphärenkonzept” (315) to be at all helpful in seeing and analyzing familiar territory anew.

The section “Szenen” holds great promise because of the compelling topics chosen for examination in its five chapters: the closing of the Südbahnhof, the graduation ceremony (“Sponsion”) at the University of Vienna, the omnipresence of pigeons, the European soccer championship of 2008, and amateur Vienna filmmakers. However, with the exception of Anna Stoff regen’s successful analysis of her experience as a volunteer at the European soccer championship in 2008 that very nicely highlights, for example, the signifi-cance of the volunteers’ “Ausweis,” the...