Mobility

Mobility and movement are of concern to academics working across the social sciences and humanities, and this article provides a critical evaluation of current geographical research on mobility. Mobility studies have become particularly prominent since the 1990s, taking shape as an increasingly multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field that is frequently referred to as the “new mobilities paradigm.” The article traces links with research undertaken on nonrepresentational theories and poststructuralist geographies, before identifying some of the principal research foci for scholars writing about mobility. Mobility and movement are entwined with complex power relationships which gather around different embodied practices. Mobility is performed and sensed by bodies moving in different ways, and for geographers, embodied movements form vital constituents in the production, performance, or animation of spaces, places, and landscapes. The notion of “moorings” is also important to understanding mobilities, particularly in terms of how infrastructures, elements, and materials enable or facilitate mobilities. Methodological experimentation and innovation have also been key concerns for mobility scholars, who have utilized “mobile methods” in an attempt to apprehend movement in new ways.