The Flâneur

The Flaneuris usually identified as the "man of the crowd" of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire, and one of the heroes of Walter N. Benjamin's Arcades Project. The Flaneur'sactivity of strolling and loitering is mentioned increasingly frequently in sociology, cultural studies and art history but very rarely is the debate developed. This book shows that the debate does not begin and end with Baudelaire and Benjamin. The Flaneurcenters around a series of original essays which provide hitories of the origins of the Flaneurand Flanerie. It raises many questions such as whether we have to walk the streets to indulge in Flanerie; how the city is a gendered space; and how Flaneriemight be possible from the safety of our dining tables. Keith Tester also raises important questions about the status of sociological and cultural studies.