Mobility

Mobility aims to take the pulse of this enormously expanded and energetic field. It explores the breadth of the disciplinary areas mobility studies now encompasses, examining the diverse conceptual and methodological approaches wielded within the field, and explores the utility of mobility to illuminate a cornucopia of mobile lives: from the mass movements of individuals within global processes such as migration and tourism, to homelessness and war; from the entangled relations caught up in the movement of disease, people and aid across borders, to the inability of someone to cross over a road.

The new edition explores the more sustained elaboration of mobility studies within a wide variety of disciplinary approaches and subject matters. It echoes the growing internationalisation of mobility research, reflected in diverse case-studies from the Global South, South Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and so far under-represented perspectives from China, Australasia, post-socialist Eastern Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere. The book also features an additional chapter on ‘Mobility Studies’, to survey and explore the diverse quality of the field, and ‘Methodologies’, in order to reflect the growing diversity of methodological approaches to mobilities, from walk-alongs and critical cartography to the mobile arts.

The book offers an accessible reading of the way mobility has been tackled and understood, neatly exploring and summarising a topic that has exploded into different variations and nuances. The text allows scholars and students alike to grasp the central importance of ‘mobility’ to social, cultural, political, economic and everyday terrains by providing accessible writings on key authors within key concepts, case-studies, mobile methods boxes, suggested further readings and summaries, while at the same time making a significant contribution to scholarly writings and debates.

Peter Adey is Professor of Human Geography at Royal Holloway University of London. He is the author of 6 books and various paper articles, including Aerial Life: mobilities, subjects, affects; Air; From Above (eds); and The Routledge International Handbook of Mobilities (eds).