Subversive mobilities

Abstract

There has been an inherent bias in studies of "mobility regimes" toward the perspective of the authorities. This article suggests the concept of "subversive mobilities" to offer a novel perspective on the construct of mobilities regimes, by stressing the ways such regimes are penetrated by adversaries through diverse routes and practices, despite the regimes' various control and defense mechanisms. We investigate how "smugglers" make use of weaknesses in existing mobility regimes to facilitate their subversion, using three case studies of subversive mobilities, smuggling of Rohingya migrants, of Colombian cocaine and of South African rhino horns, to substantiate the potential of our approach. The subversive mobilities of all three case studies reveal some common traits: a multiplicity of routes and means of travel, informal personal networks based on trust and retribution rather than formal organization, and interconnected series of assemblages of differently involved actors. We claim that the continued success of "smugglers" to subvert the existing mobility regimes is their greater flexibility: they tend to be pro-active, initiating new routes and means of movement, and the cooperation of illicit and legitimate role-bearers, while the mobility regimes are mostly reactive, giving the former at least a temporary advantage over the latter. Our approach leads to a more inclusive and dynamic view of mobilities regimes, and enables a better understanding of why the "smuggling" of goods and "trafficking" in people is increasingly successful, despite the efforts of mobilities regimes to block these activities.

Mobilizing research on Africa's development corridors

“…However, more work needs to be done to better understand the diverse strategies people use to resist and overturn changing patterns of mobility along corridor routes. Concepts from the mobilities literature, such as Ôcounter-mobilitiesÕ and Ôsubversive mobilitiesÕ (Sheller 2016, Cohen et al 2017, might prove useful in carrying out this research agenda.…”

Ephemeral Infrastructures of Drug Smuggling Mobilities

“…Likewise, several contributions have emphasized the socio-technical systems configured as forms of control and classification of legal and illegal flows (Adey, 2004;Sheller, 2010). Cohen et al, (2017) have been more specific still in developing what they call 'subversive mobilities'. They discuss the need to open the 'black box' on the ways artifacts are integrated into these networks.…”

“…Likewise, several contributions have emphasized the socio-technical systems configured as forms of control and classification of legal and illegal flows (Adey, 2004; Sheller, 2010). Cohen et al (2017) have been more specific still in developing what they call “subversive mobilities.” They discuss the need to open the “black box” on the ways artifacts are integrated into these networks. Similarly, Bess and Enciso (2017) propose the study of “drug mobilities” to understand the convergences of movement, technology, and organizational control for mobility studies and transport history, with the scholarship on the drugs trade.…”

The gray zones of innovation: the illegal and the informal in marginal worlds

“…For example, Science, Technology, and Innovation Studies (STIS) have been instrumental to understand the interrelationships between different locations, materialities, and conditions of the illegal/informal. For example, authors such as Bess and Enciso (2017), Cohen, Cohen, and Li (2017), Guerrero-C (2019), and Martin (2019) have proposed the need to integrate artifacts and infrastructures required for the understanding of drug trafficking that until recently has been analyzed as a security concern and from economical and organizational points of view, in which academics took the state point of view as focal interest. Pinto-García (2019) and Moreno-M (2020) have analyzed guerrilla warfare and clandestinity as spaces of knowledge and creativity.…”