Arina Rezanova: The Neglected Object: Reflections on the Continuum of Hospitality, Safety and Mobility – Station Services

Abandoned luggage has long been a problem in the transport sector and in the management models of complex socio-systems such as metropolitan railway stations. The issue is attracting increasing attention from both managers and institutions, as the number of so-called ‘abandoned’ items (those not claimed or returned to their owners within 20 minutes) rose by more than 50% between 2020 and 2022, prompting the SNCF to devise two complementary strategies:

– On the one hand, a focus on providing enhanced support for passengers, through staff and digital tools (station announcements, text message campaigns, CCTV, and luggage tracking via QR codes or geolocation). This approach is part of the station manager’s commitment to implementing ‘benevolent surveillance’, encouraging individual behaviour based on vigilance and interactions that help prevent potentially disruptive behaviour;

– Furthermore, to resolve cases of unclaimed luggage, the implementation of a regulatory protocol (January 2020) that is both very strict and highly disruptive to business continuity (with the security perimeter extended to 200 metres and the evacuation of railway land). Abandoned items can be seen as ‘grains of sand’ that hinder the railway system and, in a systemic way, undermine all other ancillary activities within railway complexes.

This dual response, which is both preventive and remedial, involves decision-making and experimentation in the technological, organisational and institutional spheres, as well as in the realm of the relationship between the company and its customers. The thesis therefore examines the continuum of practices and responsibilities that are assembled and negotiated around these neglected areas within the fields of reception and information, flow management, security and commercial services.

This thesis lies at the intersection of the field of socio-technical analysis of risks and crises (LATTS) and the field of logistics and digital mobility services in railway stations (LVMT). It forms part of the ‘material turn’ in the social sciences and examines the object in terms of the practices, relationships and spatialities it engages in with a subject, and more broadly, with networked actors. The empirical work will therefore reveal the as yet barely visible links between, on the one hand, surveillance—often regarded as overarching and panoptic—and, on the other, a benevolent, partnership-based relationship mediated by humans and machines. It will juxtapose, if not contrast, the organisational and institutional transformation brought about by the process of transcribing and translating security protocols within the highly constrained frameworks of station management, amidst the clash of sometimes rival professional cultures and identities. The aim of the thesis is indeed to show what the neglected object teaches us about the interplay of the processes of digitalisation, security and value creation at work in transport hubs, against a backdrop of profound institutional reforms (opening up to competition) and rising risks and uncertainties.