Traces of a Mobile Field: Ten Years of Mobilities Research

Abstract

Since the launch of this journal ten years ago, the field of mobilities research has developed at a rapid pace. In this editorial introduction we explore how this development has been curated, how the field has evolved, and what maturation might mean for mobilities research. After reviewing how early editorials encouraged particular trajectories of development within mobilities research, we introduce the papers in this special issue, which build upon and re-shape key discussions that have emerged in the last decade. Drawing out issues of power, interdisciplinarity, social processes and futures, the papers raise important questions about not only how understandings of mobilities are changing, but also how the field of mobilities research is itself on the move. Taking up these themes, we examine how understanding mobilities research as a field, following Bourdieu (1984), contributes to considerations of the potential for future struggles, fragmentation, and sub-disciplines. We argue that the open nature and strategic diversity of the mobilities field has fed the successes of the past decade, and therefore needs to remain a priority in the future -with a careful balance curated between convergence around key themes and the exploration of varied 'internal goods' (MacIntyre 1985) which remain an important source of inspiration and creative potential within the field.

Theorising mobility justice

“…I would argue that issues of uneven motility and of mobility rights, ethics and justice have become crucial to the field (Cresswell, 2006;Bergmann and Sager, 2008). There has been increasing attention to concepts such as "differential mobility" (Frith, 2012), "uneven mobilities" (Sheller, 2015), "motility" or potential mobility (Flamm and Kaufmann, 2006;Kellerman, 2012), "mobility capabilities" (Kronlid, 2008), and questions of power, justice and mobility rights (Baerenholdt, 2013;Faulconbridge and Hui, 2016). Mobilities research also has a normative dimension: it engages not only in critical analysis of historical and existing mobility systems, but also models future transitions that might help to bring about alternative cultures of mobility.…”

Tourists, mobilities and paradigms

“…After 10 years, the vibrant and interdisciplinary set of dialogues that characterize the field has largely rendered moot the question of whether there really was a mobilities turn or paradigm shift. More interesting, therefore, are questions of how links and connections, histories and futures, become intertwined in 'state-of-the-art' mobilities research (Faulconbridge and Hui, 2016: 2) 8…”

Mobility intersections: social research, social futures

“…Others suggest that we now need to put concerted effort into defining alternative mobility futures as social futures and more effective ways of shaping them (Dennis and Urry 2009, Bonham and Johnson 2015, Urry 2016. This lends a certain urgency to the need to reflect on the current status of the field and creates a need for critical reflection about where mobilities research is now (see Faulconbridge & Hui 2016) and where it may, or should, move towards. This special issue therefore seeks to deepen conversations at the intersections between mobilities research and a number of fellow analytical orientations, competing frameworks and adjacent fields.…”