The Cultures of Alternative Mobilities

The Cultures of Alternative Mobilities presents a series of ethnographic studies, focusing on the local cultures of mobilities and immobilities, emphasizing the everyday sense of contingency and heterogeneity that accompanies them. Compensating for the excess of theory and criticism based on the notion of 'hypermobilities', this book sheds light on the nuanced differences and idiosyncrasies of mobility, with a view to rediscovering meanings and lifestyles marked by movement and immobility. Original, empirical and global case studies are presented by an international team of scholars, exploring the complex, negotiated and contingent nature of the social worlds of movement. By avoiding sweeping generalizations on the deeply connected and readily mobile nature of society as a whole, this volume sheds light on the diversity of mobility modes in an accessible and interdisciplinary form that will be of key interest, to sociologists, geographers and scholars of human mobility, communication and culture.

Phillip Vannini is an Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University, Canada

Contents: Foreword: mobilities as culture, Ole B. Jensen; The cultures of alternative mobilities, Phillip Vannini; Part 1 Performing Space and Time: Paddle and portage: the travail of BWCA canoe travel, Dennis D. Waskul and Michele E. Waskul; Walking and sitting in Australian Antarctic Territory: mobility and imperial space, Christy Collis; Moving with others: the sociality of the railway journey, David Bissell; The view from the air: the cultural geographies of flight, Lucy Budd; The making of mundane bus journeys, Juliet Jain. Part 2 Mobile Biographies, Identities, and Lifestyles: Dear Diary: auto/biography, respect, and mobility, Gayle Letherby and Jon Shaw; Immobile mobility in daily travelling experiences in Santiago de Chile, Paola Jirón; Mobility in later life: time, choice, and action, Lena Levin; Solitude at sea or social sailing? The constitution and perception of the cruising community, Martina Kleinert; Mobility as strategy, mobility as tactic: post-industrialism and bike messengers, Jeffrey L. Kidder. Part 3 The Materialities of Mobility: Wet and boisterous: the lumpy romance of commuting by boat, Roger Boshier; Cancelled, aborted, late, mechanical: the vagaries of air travel in Arviat, Nunavut, Canada, Lisa-Jo van den Scott; Mobility, ritual, and performance: an ethnography of parents', children's and youths' ferry boat travel, Phillip Vannini and April Vannini with Jacob Manson and Autumn Vannini; Coming of age in a time of motorcycles, Richard G. Mitchell Jr and Adele Kubein; Winslow - a city in motion, Janna Jones and Mark Neumann; Index.