Disentangling Following: Implications and Practicalities of Mobile Methods

Abstract

The increasing interest in mobilities among social scientists over the past two decades has generated new research approaches to deepen the understanding of people's diverse movements. These methods have focused on capturing research participants' mobilities, but also led to new ways of thinking about researchers' mobilities as a strategy to collect data. In this paper, we explore the relationship between researchers and research participants' mobilities through the idea of 'following'. Drawing on insights from the Moving Marketplaces research project on eight markets in the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, we highlight the lack of beginnings and endings of following. This leads us to a reflection on what to actually follow as well as an analysis of the doings of following. This paper examines some of the unexplored terrains in the conceptual and methodological debate around following and argues that it is essential to reflexively engage with the implications and practicalities of this approach. We argue that it is more productive to regard following not only as the physical process of following people, objects, knowledge, etc., but also as a theoretical and methodological openness that embraces and articulates the dynamic and non-linear character of ethnographic research practices.

The evolving field of global mobility: responses to global volatility (2013–2022)

“…In this regard, geographic flexibility is crucial for novel work arrangements that have emerged following COVID-19 but are challenging to implement in certain countries. Guttormsen and Lauring (2022) pave the way for such an innovative interdisciplinary approach by applying a new mobility paradigm (Breines et al ., 2021) to global mobility. Drawing on this approach enables the authors to raise crucial concerns in the field, such as the contextual meaning of expatriation, the perceptions and experiences of immobile individuals regarding mobility, the impact of inequality and privilege, as well as social and material resources on mobility, and the role of history in the mobility experience (Guttorsmen and Lauring, 2022).…”

‘ALL EYES ON ME’: The (In)Formal Barriers to Market Trade in Europe

“…The data were collected through semi‐structured interviews, participant observations and informal conversations with traders, market inspectors and managers, as well as with representatives of local governments and traders’ associations. Hundreds of hours were spent following various market traders during their selling and buying activities (for further methodological details, see Breines et al ., 2021). The field notes and interviews were transcribed and coded using an inductive approach to avoid imposing preconceptions on the data (Charmaz, 2006).…”

Marketplaces

“…To develop such a processual understanding of public space, we draw for inspiration on the so-called new mobilities paradigm or mobility turn (Sheller & Urry, 2006), which resulted in a large and still growing number of studies focusing on the flows and movement of people, goods and ideas in social sciences (e.g. Adey, 2006Adey, , 2017Urry, 2007;Jensen, 2009;Cresswell, 2010Cresswell, , 2011Breines et al, 2021). While this mobility perspective is very common in certain fields of urban research, such as migration studies, it is less conventional in public space research in general, and market research in particular (with some notable exceptions, such as Qiang, 2013).…”

“…On the one hand, markets are often seen as quintessential public places, where people of different social, economic and cultural backgrounds feel welcome and can interact (Morales, 2009;Watson, 2009;Janssens & Sezer, 2013a). On the other hand, markets are perhaps the most mobile, dynamic, temporal and translocal of all public spaces (Seale, 2016;Schappo & Van Melik, 2017;Breines et al, 2021), constructed and deconstructed each operating day and consisting of a wide array of people, goods and ideas. Hence, markets provide a unique opportunity to study the relation between place and mobility.…”