Sociology of mobile public spaces: behavioural tactics in public transport

The article focuses on the study of the interaction orders in public spaces. Classics of sociology and modern scholars agree that communication in public space is fragmented, momentary and anonymous. People try to eliminate the number of contacts, following different behavioural tactics, inscribed in this space. In that context are interesting mobile public spaces, where the contacting is inevitable and isolation is a social achievement. An example of such a space is a cabin of public transport, where dominates nonsocial transient behavior. The author of this article, basing on the participant observations in cabins of fixed- route collective taxis of Volgograd, finds that in that mobile space practices of avoidance complemented by practices of involvement in communication.