Tracing Mobilities ─ Towards a Cosmopolitan Perspective

Mobility is a basic principle of modernity besides others like individuality, rationality, equality and globality. Taking its cue from this concept, this book presents a movement that begins with the macro-social transformations linked to mobility and ends with empirical discussions on the new forms of mobility and their implications for everyday life. The book opens with a study of the social changes unique to the second age of modernity, with contributions from Ulrich Beck, John Urry, Wolfgang Bonss and Sven Kesselring. It continues with a discussion of the implications of these changes for sociological research. Authors such as Vincent Kaufmann, Weert Canzler, Norbert Schneider, Beate Collet, Ruth Limmer and Gerlinde Vogl focus on a series of field examinations, both qualitative and quantitative, of emerging mobilities. The book is a foray into the exciting new field of interdisciplinary mobility research informed by theoretical reflection and empirical investigation.

Weert Canzler is from the Department of Innovation and Organization at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Germany. Vincent Kaufmann is Professor of Urban Sociology and Analysis of Mobility at the Laboratoire de Sociologie Urbaine, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland. Sven Kesselring is at the Technische UniversitA?t MA?nchen, Germany.