Ablitt, Jonathan

Jonathan Ablitt
Start date:
October 2015
Research Topic:
Street-level urban maintenance practices
Research pathway:
Research Supervisor:
Dr Robin Smith, Dr Tom Hall
Supervising school:
School of Social Sciences,
Primary funding source:
ESRC Studentship

This ethnographic study currently traces in situ urban maintenance practices across a number of professional and volunteer groups in Cardiff, UK. It is interested, broadly, in how the city is maintained on a daily basis, and explores the small-scale, street-level tactics and interactions that manifest in and constitute the daily round. Current interests are in members’ categorisation practices regarding people and place, and the implications of their public visibility and accountability as street-level bureaucrats responsible for, and category-bound to, the regular ‘dirty work’ of quotidian regeneration. Other research interests include the situated organisational accomplishment of teamwork, and the navigation of varying levels of practical skills between members in the context of the ever-broadening public requirements and obligations of urban public maintenance work.