We’re pleased to announce the publication a Special Issue of Mobilities Journal titled Auto/biography and mobilities in the time of climate emergency. The collection has been co-edited by CeMoRe’s Lynne Pearce and Nicola Spurling, and contains a selection of papers from a 2022 International Conference that was held at Lancaster, and co-organised by CeMoRe in collaboration with the Academy of Mobility Humanities, Konkuk University, Seoul.
The motivations for the special issue were twofold. Firstly, and as we have argued in the 2020 CeMoRe Manifesto, the advancement of a just and ecological mobilities transformation should be central to the work of mobilities scholarship at the current time. Secondly, the co-editors were keen to explore how such aspirations intersect with the major, though often unspoken, changes to the ways in which individuals and societies are now contemplating life course and planning for the future which became visible in the Covid-19 pandemic, and which climate change is further forcing individuals and society to contemplate.
The Symposium brought together a rich range of contributions which spoke to these concerns, and the special issue develops this thinking a step further. A central argument which we build in the special issue is that the auto/biographical genre offers theoretical and methodological starting points that are key to a just and ecological mobilities transformation. We make this argument in our introductory paper which is available open access ‘Auto/biography and mobilities in the time of climate emergency’.
The special issue is dedicated to the memory of our colleague, Russell Hitchings, Professor of Geography at University College London, who passed away in May 2024. As we say in our journal dedication, Russell contributed an inspiring and insightful talk at the Symposium on which this special issue is based, in which he eloquently engaged with the relationships between the three themes auto/biography, mobilities and climate change. His ideas and insights are frequently cited in our Introduction. We remember him with great respect; his intellectual contributions, and his kindhearted and welcoming presence will be missed by all who knew him.
The full list of papers in the Special Issue with links to abstracts and open access papers (where available) can be found below. If you are developing research which speaks to the theme of auto/biography and mobilities in a time of climate emergency, the co-editors Lynne Pearce and Nicola Spurling would be really interested to hear from you, on l.pearce@lancaster.ac.uk and n.spurling@lancaster.ac.uk.
Special Issue (currently available online)
Pearce, L. and Spurling, N. J. Auto/biography and mobilities in the time of climate emergency (open access)
Murray, L. Re-storying gendered im/mobilities through a mobile and generational auto/ethnography (open access)
Spurling, N. J. (Im)mobile autobiography: the mobilisation of life without children auto/biography and its significance (open access)
Lee, J. Climate change, planetary biography and symbiotic mobilities
Rau, H. and Matern, A. Mobility practices in a changing climate: Understanding shifts in car ownership and use across the life course (open access)
Kim, T. The mobility biography of things and the climate emergency
Sheriff, R. E. Driving while dreaming: oneiric automobility
