Die Straße lebt. 
15 
den auch immer) der einen nicht das Recht der anderen, die Sprachlosen zu reprä 
sentieren. James Clifford behauptet, es sei den kritischen Diskussionen in der ame 
rikanischen Kulturanthropologie gelungen, „to dislodge the ground from which 
persons and groups securely represent each other-”. 27 Ob diese Kritik tatsächlich 
so durchsetzungsfähig ist, wie Clifford annimmt, muß mindestens gegenwärtig 
noch bezweifelt werden. Die Autorität und Authentizität der aus den eigenen For 
schungen hervorgegangenen Repräsentation einer fremden kulturellen Wirklich 
keit zu hinterfragen, kann ein Schritt in diese Richtung sein. 
English Summary 
GlSELA WELZ: Street Life. Observations on an urban tactic. 
As a topic in culture studies, the street receives far more attention for its extra-ordinary 
uses than for its established designation as a channel for automobile and pedestrian traffic. 
In the case of urban slums in the Unites States, the street is the locus of everyday life; here, 
street life all but eclipses conventional uses of the street. Relying on an explanatory model 
culled from cultural ecology, the street life of a low-income, ethnically mixed New York 
neigborhood ist presented as functional in the face of poverty and declining opportunities 
for social mobility. However, the essay proceeds to question the notion of functionality on 
two counts. On closer inspection, street life is revealed as being less than functional because 
of the price the “street people” are paying for their so-called successful adaptation, in terms 
°f spatial competition within the slum environment, a severe restriction of spatial mobility, 
a nd the threats to the perseverance of street life from institutions of the larger society. Also, 
the essay questions the adequacy of such explanatory models as “functionality” or 
culture”, suggesting that they may be nothing more but representational strategies conven 
tionalized in anthropology and culture studies. 
27 
Clifford; Introduction: Partial Truths, S. 10.