Doing mobile ethnography: Grounded, situated and comparative

Abstract

This paper explores and discusses the experimental, critical and self-reflective use of differing methods in urban studies. In the context of frequent calls to investigate urban processes in a planetary and comparative perspective, the empirical groundedness of research is among the particularly complex challenges urban scholars are confronted with. The key question is: how can qualitative-empirical methods, such as ethnography or qualitative mapping, be adapted to explore contemporary urban conditions? This paper seeks to contribute to current debates by introducing a specific methodological design of a mobile ethnography that enables an analysis of large and heterogeneous urban territories, in three main ways: first, by offering a theoretically informed and empirically grounded transductive research design; second, by proposing a complementary set of cartographic, historiographic and comparative methods of which mobile ethnography is a part; and third, by suggesting post- and decolonial methodological perspectives, both conceptually by engaging with Latin American urbanisms, as well as empirically by furthering collaborative ways of knowledge production. To conclude, the paper stresses the need to continually develop new inventive methods for comparative urban research, for two main reasons: (1) to enable scholars to question established geographical representations and parochial imaginaries of urban space, and (2) to problematise methodological and theoretical dogmas with situated knowledge. By suggesting different representations of the urban, the paper thus emphasises how important it is to transductively entangle empirical and theoretical conceptualisations to further decentre and pluralize urban knowledge production.

Thinking through people: The potential of volunteered geographic information for mobility and urban studies

“…The information from this paper builds on an ethnographic approach of establishing close relationships with subjects of study and emphasising their agency (Howe, 2020; Simone, 2004a; Streule, 2019), and validating mixed-methods research designs (Clark and Ivankova, 2016: 7; Johnson and Turner, 2003: 299). My initial exploratory research on the peripheries of the GCR, which is nearly 200 km in diameter, revealed strong contrasts between areas near urban centralities and apartheid-era commuter settlements on these remote peripheries, particularly in regard to everyday rhythms and movement related to commuting (cf.…”

“…Twenty-six participants were interviewed at their place of residence and four at their place of work or a public location of their choice; most interviews included ‘mobile ethnographies’, accompanying the person to the places they visited during a typical day (cf. Laurier, 2002; Streule, 2019). After collecting data for 30 days with 30 people, the data sets were processed by a web-based visualisation tool to reveal modes of transportation, anchor points (locations a person visited as part of their daily routines), and trajectories in between these spaces (Figure 1).…”

“…Even methods from the field of migration studies (Blaser Mapitsa and Landau, 2019; Kihato, 2013) and multi-sited ethnographic approaches on different scales must overcome a ‘sedentary bias’ focused on places and neglecting physical movement itself (cf. Marcus, 1995; Streule, 2019: 10).…”

Introduction to the special issue “Contested urban territories: decolonized perspectives”

“…In an interview with Raúl Zibechi, the issue editors (Streule and Schwarz, 2019, this issue) expand on such activist, grassroots perspectives towards emancipatory territories and territorializations. Socioterritorial movements, the key concept around which much of Zibechi's work revolves, are of particular interest for the special issue and are one of the contexts from which a relational concept of territory, as discussed widely in the Latin American context, has emerged.…”

Bypass urbanism: Re-ordering center-periphery relations in Kolkata, Lagos and Mexico City

“…At the same time, we drew on the process-oriented epistemological perspective offered by planetary urbanization, and were informed by Lefebvre's theory of the production of space (see Lefebvre, 1991;Schmid, 2014. The methodology was based on iterative rounds of field research in each urban region by individual researchers, applying mobile and multisited ethnography, interviews with inhabitants and a comprehensive consideration of a broad local scholarship, (Kallenberger, 2018;Sawyer, 2016;Streule, 2016Streule, , 2018Streule, , 2019a. Mapping was a key tool of comparison, as it allowed us to move analytically and imaginatively across different contexts to identify emergent similarities.…”