Commoning the touristic city. Urban pedestrian routes and the ambiguous politics of exploration

This chapter explores touristic infrastructures as politics of ambiance, paying attention to the way they enable urban environment and engage pedestrians to experience cities critically. This issue will be documented through an ethnographic study of two touristic “pedestrian paths” relying on artistic/plant facilities in the cities of Liège (Belgium) and Nantes (France). We will account in particular for the way those pedestrian paths frame the urban experience of tourists (or locals) at the same time orienting it (reducing the uncertainty) and opening it to the context, hence producing a peculiar contextual ambiance. On the basis of a first-person ethnographic experience and semi-directed interviews with “enchantment engineers”, this chapter will finally examine the political dimension of certain critical situations or statements, highlighting the construction of contrasting and politically differentiated tourist experiences.