6 theoretical resources for mobility research – Sheller and Urry
the authors identify 6 bodies of theories that can be enrolled within mobilities research:
- humans have a ‘will to connection’, with the pulse of the city
- hybrid geographies of humans and nonhumans that enable people to move and to hold shape, bringing things close (incl surveillance)
- material stuff makes up places, requiring assemblage (assembling/re-assembling)
- recentring of corporeal body, a vehicle through which we sense place and movement
- topology of social networks (here it shows this paper was written in 2005)
- the analysis of complex system (the example of foot and mouth is given, but the horse meat scandal is another one today)
“The new mobilities paradigm suggests a set of questions, theories, and methodologies rather than a totalising or reductive description of the contemporary world.” (Urry, Sheller).
How do we avoid a “reductive description of the contemporary world” – I’m not sure how to take ‘new mobilities paradigm’ in these terms. Maybe if questions were asked differently, or possibly rephrased?
How does ‘new mobilities paradigm’ (2004) translate in 2013? Maybe more focus on ‘connectedness’ – and overall context?