Between puer and flâneur. Discovering the city

Abstract

In the paper, two different approaches to exploring the city will be considered: that of the child and that of the flâneur. These are figures that, although starting from completely different perspectives, converge in reading and interpreting the urban experience through the innocence, spontaneity and lightheartedness of the child and the search for emotions, improvisation and depth of the flâneur. The first is oriented toward adolescence and knowledge of the world, while the second engages in a kind of regression to childhood; in this, the child and the flâneur seem mysteriously to meet on one of the magic streets of our cities or on a page of a book as they live a common experience.