New Mobilities

Keynote: New Mobilities
John Urry

new mobilities paradigm

vs. sedentarist, nomadic, and placeless theories

rise of travel

• people live and work and play at greater and greater distances
  
• social networks are less coherent, with fewer overlapping multiple affiliations (Watts, Granovetter, etc)
  
• people have more contacts, but more time is spent maintaining them
  
• meetingness: yet physical contact (meeting up) is still seen as necessary and desirable (Boden)
  
• obligatory travel: object obligations (to use/manipulate physical obs), meeting obligations, obligations to certain places of leisure, event obligations, family obligations
  
• new category: “mobility deprivation” for social exclusion/poverty
  
• the rise of the networked family
  
• what is the “good life” in terms of mobility?
  

Q: (Genevieve B) Mobility through religion?

A: Yes, especially the kind of religious mobility that produces daily urban rhythms (like the call to prayer, Friday mass, etc)