Cohort: SOMET 37° 
Topic of the thesis: Social Distancing and Urban Travel. Producing Norms and Atmospheres in the Interaction on Milan’s Public Transport

Abstract: Since the first months of 2020, the transport systems of most cities have had to face the new pandemic context. Social distancing practices became a primary tool during the pandemic, however proving to be quite negligible in some crowding realities typical of urban mobility. Through an ethnographic approach, this research aims to study social distancing on urban public means of transportation (UPMT), focusing on norms negotiation. To investigate such phenomenon the transport system of the city of Milan was chosen to study how travelers, through interactions, negotiate norms and anti-Covid-19 regulations established by authorities. Goffmanian categories are used to detail the processes of “externalization” and “scanning”, through which travelers try to make sense of the current and forthcoming events surrounding them. The recent literature about urban atmospheres is also employed to highlight how the aesthetic and affective qualities of the environment impact behaviours. Besides direct ethnographic observation and video recordings, data are also collected from focus groups to capture users’ subjective perspectives in the process of interactively negotiating norms.  In sum, this research aims to investigate two different aspects. The first one is how norms are affirmed through socialization. Hence, to contribute to the ongoing discussion about the issue of social distancing, I will depict the process whereby a corpus of norms is negotiated, accepted, and refused by travelers. The second aspect I want to investigate is how norms are enacted by the UPMT users in their interaction. Illustrating different instances of how norms are negotiated and how social distancing emerges from them, I will provide knowledge about both social distancing and patterns of urban travel behaviours.

Research interests: Mobility; Cultural Sociology; Interactionism; Communication.

Graduated from: Università degli studi di Milano-Bicocca (BA); Università degli studi di Trento (MA).

Degrees obtained: BA in Sociology; MA in Sociology and Social Research.

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