On the 8th/9th July 2021, CeMoRe co-hosted the Immobile Lives in Turbulent Times: Methods and Practices of Mobilities Research conference.
Given the turbulent geo-political, social and technological times in which we live, continued attention to the role of im/mobilities seems never more important. As a collaboration between the Mobilities Futures Research Network (MFRN) and the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences at Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, this 1st international inter-disciplinary mobilities research conference provided a meeting ground for the ongoing development of the forms, theories and practices in mobilities research.
Mobilities research encompasses a range of foci from those interested in the exclusions generated by the (in)ability of bodies to move across and within national borders, the movement (and restriction) of information in an unevenly networked society, through to accounts which emphasise the centrality of emotions, materiality and the sensuous-ness of (im)mobility in various aspects of everyday life. Mobilities research is therefore approached by those with varying interests, philosophical orientations and political positions. The intention of this conference was to provide a constructive forum for conversations across what might otherwise operate as discrete and dis-connected fields of inquiry.
As a route to both valuing this diversity and igniting ‘inter-mobilities conversations’, the conference was particularly concerned with ways of approaching and researching im/mobile lives. The conference explored the (dis)connections between different ways of thinking about and researching im/mobilities and the potentialities of cross-over, borrowings and hybridization.
The conference offered a collection of insightful talks on 85 papers across the two days: the link to the programme can be found here.
There were also key notes from Sven Kesselring a research professor in ‘Automotive Management: Sustainable Mobilities’ at Nuertingen- Geislingen University and research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University and from Maggie O’Neill, Professor in Sociology at University College Cork, Head of the Department of Sociology & Criminology and a member of the Centre for the Study of the Moral Foundations of Economy and Society.
The event was concluded with a plenary roundtable on climate change responsibility chaired by CeMoRe’s Monika Buscher.
Please follow this link for access to recordings of the roundtable and opening and closing sessions.
CeMoRe would like to thank all participants and attendees for their involvement in a very successful and enjoyable conference.
