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Welcome to the collaborative workspace for Mobilities Research in Aotearoa/New Zealand
This website hosts several new research initiatives in the social sciences, led by emerging researchers in trans-disciplinary locations, interested in the consequences of new locations, new practices and new knowledges facilitating more mobile lifestyles. The following sections may provide a useful introduction to our work. Our commitment is to the cooperative ethos of shared, multidisciplinary, inquiry-based investigation. We intend to post work in progress regularly, assist the publication of completed projects, network with other researchers and coordinate research events through which to foster on-the-spot interaction, critique and dissemination of new work.
2nd Mobilities Research Symposium 15/16 July 2011
Towards a Movement-Driven Social Science in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Hosted in the School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University Manawatu, Turitea Campus, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Programme
The Final Programme containing abstracts and short bios for all presenters is available.
Keynote Speaker
Dr David Bissell School of Sociology, College of Arts & Social Sciences, Australian National University Canberra Australia
Mobile lives and the time of neighbourhood
This keynote takes as its starting point the idea of neighbourhood as a condition of dwelling close together. This gregariousness has often been unpacked in terms of spatial relations that translate into imaginations of localities and communities. Whilst sedentarist understandings of neighbourhood are being reimagined in light of the increasingly mobile lives of some, in this paper the focus is less on the spatial relations inherent in the idea of neighbourhood, than in the temporal dynamic it entails. However, where the idea of neighbourhood would seem to lend itself to the analysis of everyday routines, my focus on the more volatile force of habit will open up neighbourhood to other imaginations of proximate dwelling in time.
David Bissell is lecturer in Sociology at The Australian National University. David’s research explores different configurations of stillness and passivity in the context of mobilities including sleep, atmosphere, waiting, comfort, pain, and encumbrances. His most recent research is interested in how habit designates a particular way of encountering in the world. He has recently co-edited Stillness in a Mobile World (Routledge, 2010) and is co-editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Mobilities (Routledge, 2012).
Keynote Speaker
Professor John Urry Lancaster University
Does Mobility have a future
Is there enough oil to oil the wheels of society? Is liquid modernity based on one liquid, oil? Does oil-based fast movement have a long term future? Or will global mobility and globalisation come to a grinding halt when the supplies of oil begin to decline and prices rise even more dramatically?
John Urry is Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for Mobilities Research at Lancaster University. Recent books include Mobile Lives (2010, with A Elliott), Mobile Methods (2011, ed with M Büscher), Climate Change and Society (2011), The Tourist Gaze 3.0 (2011, with J Larsen).
1st Mobilities Research Symposium 15/16 November 2010
Towards a Movement-Driven Social Science in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Hosted in the Department of Tourism, University of Otago, Dunedin New Zealand | Sponsored by BRCSS II
This multi-disciplinary Symposium attracted over 20 papers from across the University of Otago as well as other universities within New Zealand and even Australia! The two-day Symposium brought together researchers interested in issues of mobility and allowed cross-, multi- and trans- disciplinary discussions and collaborations to begin to develop.
Programme Outline
The Final Programme containing abstracts and short bios for all presenters is still available. Please direct any questions concerning the presentations to Tara Duncan (tara.duncan@otago.ac.nz).
Podcasting of some papers from the Symposium will be available early in the New Year. Watch this space!
Keynote Speaker
Dr Monika Büscher, Centre for Mobilities Research and mobilities.lab, Lancaster University UK
Mobile Methods
Discussing the analytical and innovative leverage of 'mobile methods'
Keynote speaker, Monika Büscher, is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Mobilities Research (CeMoRe) in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University and is the Director of mobilities.lab.
Monika studies mobile embodied social practices as part of participatory innovation projects. Her ethnographic work includes studies of mobilities and work practice in art and design, healthcare, software development, event management and emergency response. Recently co-edited books include 'Ethnographies of Diagnostic Work' (Palgrave 2009), 'Mobile Methods' and 'Design Research' (Routledge 2010).
Theorising People on the Move
The Mobilities Paradigm is a Theme for New Research Initiatives in the Social Sciences at the University of Otago
- click on link to download
Recent Developments in the Mobilities Paradigm for Social Sciences Research
Empirical Projects
Tracking transition: Malaysian students in partnered dental education
- Dr Vivienne Anderson, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Otago
Mobilising new sport forms: Adventure racing and extreme mobility
- Dr Martha Bell, Department of Anthropology, Gender & Sociology, University of Otago
Impacts of a gap year: Knowing and belonging through mobility
- Dr Tara Duncan, Department of Tourism, University of Otago
- Dr Debra Waters (Preventive and Social Medicine) University of Otago, Associate Professor Leigh Hale (School of Physiotherapy) University of Otago, Dr Linda Robertson (Dept of Occupational Therapy) Otago Polytechnic, Dr Beatrice Hale (freelance social gerontologist)
Research Collaboration
Mobilities Research Group Meetings
Research Programme Peer Review
Research Funding
Funding support is gratefully acknowledged from the Building Research Capability in the Social Sciences II SSSRI Fund for the following projects:
Tracking transition: Malaysian students in partnered dental education (Anderson)
Mobilising new sport forms: Adventure racing and extreme mobility (Bell)
Impacts of a gap year: Knowing and belonging through mobility (Duncan)
The connection between physical improvement and social resilience: An examination of the social impact of Steady As You Go (SAYGO) exercise groups for older people (Waters, Hale, Robertson & Hale)
Research Group Links & Upcoming Events
CeMoRe Centre for Mobilities Research, Lancaster University, UK
-- CTCC Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Metropolitan Leeds University, UK
- "Traveling Languages: Culture, Communication and Translation in a Mobile World," 3-5 December 2010
- "Tourist and Cultural Itineraries: From Memory to Development," 13-15 June 2012 Québec City Canada
- see conference announcement below for further information
-- Travel Research Network for Travel Writing, Cultural Tourism and Mobility Studies, University of Melbourne, Australia
Conference | 18-20 July 2012
- Call for Papers | Travel Ideals: Engaging with Spaces of Mobility
- Abstracts deadline: 30 April 2012
Keynote Speakers:
- Professor Mary Louise Pratt, Silver Professor, New York University
- Professor Renato Rosaldo, Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, New York University
- Professor Charles Forsdick, James Barrow Professor of French, University of Liverpool
- Professor Tim Youngs, Professor of English& Travel Studies, Nottingham Trent University
Travel is an ideal for many, with more and more members of affluent societies using travel to broaden their education while attempting to realize their true potential in a place and a culture where the burdens of class, gender, sexuality, history, politics, religion and language can be renegotiated. Many questions can be raised about 'the ideal' of travel, such the imperative to prioritize 'setting out' and movement, and possession of the traveling experience by means such as photography, or the blog entry. Mary Louise Pratt?s seminal work on travel narratives Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (1992, 2007) provides a framework for analyzing the 'appropriating gaze' of colonial territoriality, but is also relevant to contemporary travel in developing regions, as well as various other contexts.
We invite papers (and panels) that focus on either the trajectory or the destination or encompass both, and which will contribute to an overall program that demonstrates the pluralism of ideals in travel writing, cultural tourism and mobility studies. We welcome proposals from various disciplines including anthropology, area studies, cinema studies, creative writing, cultural studies, geography, historical studies, language and literature studies, media and communications, migration and mobility studies, philosophy, postcolonial studies, sociology, tourism, and travel writing and other relevant areas, as well as interdisciplinary approaches.
Please send abstracts of 200-300 words including Paper/Panel title, Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details before 30 April 2012 to Josiane Smith (Research Associate): josis@unimelb.edu.au<mailto:josis@unimelb.edu.au>
--"Moving boundaries in mobilities research" Conference
University of Cagliari in collaboration with the Cosmobilities Network
University of Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, 5-7 July 2012
-- mCentre The Mobilities Research and Policy Center, Drexel University, USA
- "Mobilities in Motion: New Approaches to Emergent and Future Mobilities," 21-23 March 2011
- click here for Call for Papers
-- Cosmobilities Network -- Pegasus, Young Researchers Network for Mobility and Transport Research, Geography Department, Tübingen University, Germany
- First Annual Meeting "A World on the Move" 22-24 October 2010, Tübingen University, Germany
-- mobil.TUM Interdisciplinary Project Group for Mobility and Transport at the Institute for Transportation at TU München
- Conference "Making Sustainable Mobility - Interdisciplinary Perspectives" 7-8 April 2011, Technische Universität München, Germany
- Conference Programme available here
-- Association of American Geographers
- Special Session of the AAG Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, USA, 12-16 April 2011
- click here for Call for papers "Hub Cities and the Knowledge Economy: Airports. Seaports. Brainports."
-- ifmo Institute for Mobility Research, A Research Facility of BMW Group, München Germany
- Postdoctoral Fellowships available for 6 months in 2011
- "Mobility Cultures in Megacities"
- click here for Call for Fellowships
Cultural Mobilities Research (CuMoRe)
EASA Anthropology and Mobility Network European Association for Social Anthropology
- EASA 2012 Call for workshops open
- Dear colleagues,
- EASA is happy to announce that its next biennial conference will take place at the University of Nanterre on 10-13th July 2012. It is titled Uncertainty and disquiet. There will be the usual wide range of workshops, along with plenaries, roundtables, poster sessions, network meetings, book launches, social events and a film stream. The keynote will be given by Professor Caroline Humphrey of the University of Cambridge. The venue is 15 minutes' train ride from the centre of Paris and the conference will end on the eve of Bastille Day, with delegates invited to dance at the bals populaires and see the fireworks. The Call for Workshops is now open and closes 30th September 2011. Please visit the website for full information on the EASA 2012 Conference.
Academia Anthropology of Mobility
Facebook Anthropology and Mobility
International Medical Geography Symposium, Durham University, Durham UK
- Scope of conference: IMGS is an international conference which acts as a forum for dissemination of original research in medical and health geographies. We welcome submission of abstracts relating to empirical and/or theoretical aspects of health and health care which have geographical relevance. These may include, for example, health and place, well-being, health inequalities, environment and health, risk, health policy, health and the lifecourse, medical humanities, social science methodologies for understanding health.
- Dates for this year's biennial symposium: 10th - 15th July, 2011
- Location: Durham University, Durham, UK
- Final Programme available on website
T2M International Summer School, Berlin Germany
- International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T2M) International Summer School
- The Passenger: Mobility in Modernity
- Berlin, Germany, 30th September - 6th October, 2011
- Click here for Call for Papers poster
Australia and New Zealand Association of Leisure Studies, University of Otago New Zealand
- 10th Biennial Conference, "Challenging Leisure"
- Dunedin, New Zealand, 6th - 8th December 2011
- Themed Session: Leisure and the Mobilities Turn
- Convenor: Tara Duncan, Department of Tourism, University of Otago
- Call for Papers (closed)
Tourist and Cultural Itineraries: From Memory to Development, Québec City Canada
- International Conference, Université Laval, Canada, Université du Québec at Trois-Rivières, Canada, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France, and The Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds University, UK.
- Tourist and Cultural Itineraries: From Memory to Development
- Québec City, Canada, 13th - 15th June, 2012
- Theme: The road as the place of exchange and encounter
- Click here for Call for Papers
3rd Joint and International Mobilities Conference for Pan-American Mobilities Network and Cosmobilities Network, 16th - 18th March, 2012
- Local and mobile: Linking mobilities, mobile communication and locative media
- North Carolina State University, Raleigh (NC), USA
- Abstracts due on-line: 30th October 2011 (800 words, including references)
- Click here to go to conference site and Call for Papers
International Conference on Transmigration, 13 - 15th October, 2011
- The Resilience of People in Motion: Processes of immigration, transmigration, and remigration in the wider Europe today
- University of Trier, Trier Germany
- Migrants and migratory groups adopt as well as resist to challenges and expectations by the mobility itself or the receiving society. They perform resilient as well as innovative strategies of survival. Therefore, adoption, change and/or innovation vs. resistance, continuity and/or resilience have to be seen as part of the migratory agency. The migrants' culture of resilience, their access to and control over resources to sustain their livelihoods, has to be conceptualized in an ever changing world challenging the integrity and cohesion of any, but especially migratory, groups.
- The aim of this conference, hosted by the Cluster of Excellence 'Social Dependencies and Social Networks' and the Collaborative Research Centre 600's 'Strangers and Poor People,' is to discuss new theoretical approaches, methodologies and empirical research results on immigration, transmigration and re-migration topics. It focusses on changing European migration regimes and discourses since the fall of the iron curtain until today.
- Programme of 5 panels and 3 keynotes available here
Other Research Group Projects
For current projects in external research centres, go to Projects
Other Research Group Research Opportunities
Job Openings: PostDoctoral and Doctoral Positions
"Cultures of Mobility in Europe: Past and Present Trajectories of Traveling Communities (COME)" University of Freiburg, Germany.
- to award one postdoctoral and two doctoral positions beginning in October 2011
- headed by JProf. Dr. Anna Lipphardt, COME is based at the Institute for Cultural Anthropology/Folkloristics at the University of Freiburg.
- COME explores the practices, experiences, and politics of mobility in Europe by studying groups with mobile traditions such as the Sinti and Roma, Yeniche, or Sami, as well as mobile professional milieus such as the circus, fairground employees, or alternative travelers. Along with contributing to basic research on mobile minorities, COME research seeks to illuminate processes of community formation and disintegration under mobile circumstances, and to gain insight into the sedentary majority population from a mobile vantage point. The COME research group systematically employs transnational-oriented research approaches and qualitative research methods (e.g. multi-sited ethnography, oral-history, participatory methods).
- We welcome empirical and historical case studies on specific mobile groups, which address COME’s core research questions:
- How are traveling ways of life and mobile professions practised in Europe? What kinds of mobile strategies and mobility patterns have specific groups developed? On what experiences are these approaches based?
- How do travelers / members of mobile milieus perceive the world from their mobile point of view?
- How does access to infrastructure, public resources, communication networks etc. develop and how are they used by mobile communities?
- What are the major contact zones with the sedentary population (incl. local, state, and supra-national institutions)? How have these relationships evolved over time, especially within the context of changing residency and mobility policies?
- The research period ranges from the beginnings of the modern nation state to the present, with a focus on the second half of the 20th and the early 21st centuries. Projects that address changing mobility and residency practices among Eastern European Roma since 1989 are particularly welcome. A clear readiness to work in an interdisciplinary and comparative manner is expected.
- Beginning in October 2011, the following COME positions are available:
- 1 post-doc position (100%) for the duration of 1.5 years with a possible extension
- 2 doctoral positions (50%) for the duration of 3 years, with a possible extension.
- Salaries correspond to the TVL E13 level of the German civil service system and include health insurance and social benefits. The University of Freiburg is one of nine Universities of Excellence in the Federal Republic of Germany.
- We are currently accepting applications from candidates with MA and doctorate degrees in Cultural Anthropology, Sociology, History, and related disciplines (such as Media Studies, Cultural Geography, or Pedagogy), who have experience in: 1. qualitative research methods and 2. the areas of migration, mobility, transnationalism, or minority studies. Working languages are German and English. Candidates of all nationalities are welcome; our work is conducted in Freiburg.
- We request that applicants for the doctoral positions send a CV, a letter of recommendation from a university instructor, academic certificates, and a 5-page project proposal (incl. key questions, theoretical framework, methodological approach, and timeline) no later than September 16, 2011 to:
- COME, Institut für Volkskunde, Universität Freiburg, Maximilianstrasse 15, 79100 Freiburg, Germany
- or by email to: <come@mail.uni-freiburg.de>
- Post-doc applicants should also include a writing sample of 10-20 pages (e.g. a journal article or dissertation chapter) and, instead of a letter of recommendation, the contact details for two to three references.
- For further questions, please contact JProf. Dr. Anna Lipphardt <anna.lipphardt@eu-ethno.uni-freiburg.de>
Research Journals
- Flagship journal for new mobilities research
- Vol 50, July 2010, Special Theme Issue: 'Mobilities and Ruralities'
- Vol 16, May 2011 Editorial: 'New directions, new questions? Social theory, education and embodiment'
- John Evans and Brian Davies argue for a transdisciplinary consideration of mobility within body pedagogies
Sites: A Journal of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies
- Vol 9, No 1, 2012, Special Theme Issue: 'Mobilities in Aotearoa/New Zealand'
- containing papers from the 1st Mobilities Research Symposium, University of Otago, 2010.
