Mobile Communications in the Transit Space of Subway: Sociological Essay

Abstract

The article covers the topic of studying urban transport within the framework of sociological discourse. The subway is chosen as a specific type of urban spatial mobility. The text deals with the features of the metropolitan area as a transit space. The artifact and spatial features of the subway as the urban underground space of high mobile mobility are considered. It is inherent in spatial hybridism within the dichotomy of a private vs. public. A special aspect is considered communicative practices of underground users - passengers who use mobile devices while staying in the underground space. The peculiarities of using such device as Smartphone are revealed. In particular, practices and peculiarities of behavioral strategies of underground passengers are described, which fill the time of stay in the underground space by reading, listening to music or audio literature, watching videos, games, etc. Attention is drawn to such a phenomenon as «polite ignorance» or «ethics of indifference». The role of the cultural activities of the metro itself is described, aimed at forming not only the attitude to the metropolitan area, but also to affect the feelings and feelings of passengers in their everyday practices of urban displacements. So, the Subway is a place traditionally considered as a space of loneliness combining physical and cyber-virtual mobility, allowing people to do two things at the same time - moving in the city, staying in the cyber-media field and to be on a communicative connection.