Active suspension: affective micro-episodes in the experience of running through the city

Abstract

This article proposes the category of active suspension to analyze micro-episodes in which, while running in the city, a rhythmic cut reorganizes attention, affect, and the practical relation to the environment without stopping movement. Based on situated autoethnography and the analytical reading of two ordinary urban scenes, the article distinguishes this category from distraction, pause, drift, and mindfulness. It also develops a conceptual ladder —kinesthetic epoché, rhythmic break, affordance, affect, and resonance/dissonance—as a reading protocol for these episodes. The article argues that active suspension does not name a universal experience of the urban body, but a situated and socially distributed possibility that helps to think through the sensible dimension of mobility in Latin American urban contexts.