Global Imagining: Shoes and Social Fabrics in Motion

Caroline Knowles
photographs by Michael Tan

This paper ruminates on the value of shoes in sociological investigation, speculating on the analytical potential of quiet lives and ordinary objects. Drawing on empirical research in Chinese plastics factories and the Ethiopian city of Addis Ababa tracing the biography and journeys of a pair of flip-flops it suggests that these particular shoes work as a way into investigating both contemporary global processes and individual lives.  They reveal the worlds of migrant factory workers and those who tread the streets of African cities without other footwear options, connecting people who are unaware of each other.