Tim Cresswell

Towards a politics of mobility

This paper proposes an approach to mobility that takes both historical mobilities and forms of immobility seriously. It is argued that is important for the development of a politics of mobility. To do this it suggests that mobility can be thought of as an entanglement of movement, representation, and practice. Following this it argues for a more finely developed politics of mobility that thinks below the level of mobility and immobility in terms of motive force, speed, rhythm, route, experience, and friction. Finally, it outlines a notion of ‘constellations of mobility’ that entails considering the historical existence of fragile senses of movement, meaning, and practice marked by distinct forms of mobile politics and regulation.

Mobilities I: Catching up

This first report on mobilities outlines some aspects of research on mobilities that differentiates it from and connects it to earlier, ongoing geographies of movement such as transport geography. In the context of a world on the move it seeks to bring us up to date with the mobilities turn and make a case for mobility research as a project which focuses on the universal but always particularly constructed fact of moving. Mobilities research is compared to and differentiated from work in transport geography, arguing that mobilities research takes a more holistic view that allows it to make some previously unlikely connections.

Mobilities II Still

This second report on mobilities considers some key themes in mobilities research by (mostly) geographers over the last two years or so. Following on from some of the themes outlined in the first report, this report explores accounts of historical geographies of mobility in order to put claims to ‘newness’ in perspective. Second, it surveys how mobility research has influenced methodology focusing, in particular, on ‘mobile ethnography’. Third, the report looks at the blossoming arena or research on the forms of waiting, stillness and stuckness that have become an important component of our understanding of mobility. The conclusion reflects on the continuing importance of the politics of mobility and urges greater consideration of the mobility of ideas alongside people and things.

Weeds, Plagues, and Bodily Secretions: A Geographical Interpretation of Metaphors of Displacement

Metaphor has been the subject of a long and sustained tradition in geographical inquiry. Metaphors have been seen as evidence for peoples attachment to the earth, as ways of developing a new theory, and as sources of misleadingly simple geographical understandings in the wider realm of “theory.” In this paper, I interpret metaphors which are not obviously geographical in nature to reveal how metaphors can be understood as ways of thinking and acting with geographical and political implications. I focus on the ecological metaphor of the “weed,” the medical metaphor of “disease,” and the bodily metaphor of “secretion” and suggest that these have been used to label people and actions as “out-of-place,” as if they were weeds, diseases, or bodily secretions. The point is that these metaphors are ways of acting and not merely poetic flourishes. Positioning these “metaphors of displacement” within the theories of, and geographical engagement with, metaphor, I argue that geographers could profitably engage thems...

Tuan, Y.-F.

American-Chinese scholar Yi-Fu Tuan has made major contributions to geography, humanities, and social sciences, particularly through his work on place. His wide-ranging humanistic ruminations on the nature of human experience, and the engagement with space and place, have been widely translated and acclaimed. A pioneer of humanistic geography, his works are hard to pigeonhole and are written in a distinctive authorial style.

'You cannot shake that shimmie here': producing mobility on the dance floor.

This paper examines the regulation of ballroom dancing in England in the first four decades of the 20th century. It demonstrates how various forms of dance considered to be ‘American’, particularly the ‘shimmy’, were labelled as degenerate and threatening, and how the newly formed Imperial Society for Teachers of Dancing and the dance master and band leader Victor Silvester sought to produce a thoroughly regulated and encoded ‘English’ style of ballroom dancing. The paper charts the various strategies of representation and standardization that were used to enact this regulation of corporeal mobility. Theoretically the paper argues for an interpretive approach to bodily movement that considers bodily movement in the context of wider contexts of cultural geographies of mobility. In so doing it contributes to a growing body of work on the politics of mobility in the modern West and, particularly, the cultural politics of dance.

Landscape, mobility, practice

This paper is an edited transcript of a panel discussion on ‘Landscape, Mobility and Practice’ which was held at the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Annual Conference in September 2006. In the paper the panel engage with the work of geographers and others who have been drawing upon theories of practice to explore issues of mobility and how we encounter, apprehend, inhabit and move through landscapes. The contributors discuss the usefulness of conceptions of landscape vis-à-vis place and space, and different traditions of apprehending, practising and articulating the more-than-representational dimensions of landscapes. The panel discuss the entwining of issues of power and politics with different representations, practices and understandings of landscape/landscaping, and a number of the panellists position their thinking on the politics of landscape in relation to recent work on the politics of affect.

The Crucial ‘Where’ of Graffiti: A Geographical Analysis of Reactions to Graffiti in New York

This paper is an examination of the reactions to graffiti in New York during the early 1970s. It is argued that the reactions of the media and government present a discourse of disorder, a discourse in which graffiti is presented as a symptom of disorder and thus a threat to the image of New York City and civilization itself. Simultaneously the art establishment reacts to graffiti by (dis)placing it in Manhattan galleries and describing it as creative, ‘primitive’, and valuable. These discourses play an important role in the formation and maintenance of the meaning of a place. Simultaneously the place—New York, the subway, the gallery—plays a role in affecting the nature of the discourses and judgements of the value of graffiti. This case study is framed in the context of a wider discussion of the relation between place and ideology in which it is suggested that each plays a role in structuring the other.

Mobilities III Moving on

While the previous report made a strong case for a focus on historical geographies of mobility, this report is focused on looming future issues for geographies of mobility (and mobilities studies more generally). The report uses the recent scare over the presence of horsemeat mixed in with beef products on European supermarket shelves to consider four important themes. First, it considers the notion of ‘critical mobilities’ – mobilities which interrupt the taken-for-granted world of flows and force us to question how things move and the meanings given to those movements. Second, the report examines the theme of animal mobilities, as the movements of animals, dead or alive, often provide examples of mobilities that upset established orders. Third, it scrutinizes the importance of logistics as a process and logic that moves things, people and animals around the world. Finally, the report reflects on the practices of off-shoring and outsourcing as mobility-based practices that are proving controversial in the current political and economic climate. The conclusion reflects on the centrality of security to all of these themes and to mobility studies in general.

Geographies of poetry/poetries of geography

This contribution is a reflection on the process of becoming a poet as a geographer. It charts my journey into the world of poetry and reflects on the cross-overs between academic geography and poetic practice in the past. It considers the way in which geography and poetry can inform each other in the practice of writing creatively, and tentatively suggests how this engagement might influence my on-going writing practice now and in the future.