Mobilities

Mobilities is an interdisciplinary field that examines the movement of people, objects, information, and capital, and how these movements shape social life, identity, space, and governance. It treats mobility not only as transport but as a central organizing force in modern societies, influencing daily routines, urban form, and political power, as well as the opportunities and constraints that accompany movement and its absence.

Originating from sociology and geography in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the mobilities paradigm, associated with scholars such as John Urry and Mimi Sheller, emphasizes flows, networks, and time-space compression. It foregrounds infrastructures, institutions, and practices that enable or constrain movement, while also widening analysis to include digital, cultural, and economic forms of mobility, as well as immobility and exclusion.

Key areas of focus include physical mobility (commuting, migration, travel), economic mobility (global production networks, trade routes), digital mobility (data flows, cloud services, platform networks), and social or cultural mobility (movement through social space, aspiration, and status). The notion of mobility justice has emerged to address unequal access to movement and the opportunity structures that movement enables or denies.

Common methods combine ethnography, mobility diaries, surveys, and new data sources such as GPS tracking, mobile data, and geographic information systems (GIS) to analyze how policies, infrastructures, and social groups shape movement patterns and experiences.

Applications span urban planning, transportation policy, labor and migration studies, and climate governance, informing debates on equity and sustainability. Critiques emphasize that mobility is not inherently liberating and highlight immobility as a form of exclusion, surveillance, and control, advocating a balanced view of mobility’s benefits and constraints.