Discerner des singularités. De l’embellissement des façades et des jardins à la construction des vertus dans une ancienne cité minière d’Alsace

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic survey conducted in the mining towns of the potash mines of Alsace, we propose to examine how the discernment shown by the inhabitants in their practices of embellishment of the facades and gardens overcomes the opposition of the singular and the general. After having presented the architectural and urban framework of these towns, we show how the reciprocal attention that the inhabitants draw to one another is based on the efficiency and intelligibility of their practices. Everyone is requested to affirm their singularity in a “conversation of gestures” producing the landscape of towns and allowing inhabitants to evaluate one another based on their house maintenance. Discernment appears as a conversational competence by which the inhabitants must be able to meet the expectations of others. If this conversation provokes the expression and the recognition of singular virtues within the framework of their towns, the inhabitants struggle to be located in a larger social space where the construction and the valorization of personal qualities rest on other social relations.

Keywords

• photography
• singularity
• discernment
• variation
• conversation of gestures
• virtue