Interdependent, imagined, and embodied mobilities in mobile social space: Disruptions in ‘normality’, ‘habit’ and ‘routine’

Lesley Murray, Karolina Doughty

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This article draws on ethnographic research of everyday mobilities to further understanding of interdependent mobilities practices in relation to normality, habit and routine. The contention here is that a rethinking of ‘normality’, ‘habit’ and ‘routine’ reveals how mobilities are interdependent, imagined and embodied. We draw from Lefebvre’s (1991) notions of social space and rhythmanalysis to illustrate the relationality of these aspects of mobility. In doing so we build on recent theorisations of habit in the field of mobilities, which have opened this concept as a key site for interrogating body-society relationships arguing that both ‘routine’ and ‘normality’ have similar potential in revealing the regulation and control of everyday spaces. We consider everyday embodied engagements with mobile space and how these become normalised, habitualised and routinised. This paper draws from a Research Council UK Energy Programme funded project, ‘Disruption, the raw material for carbon change’, which uses ‘disruption’ as a lens through which to reveal potential for changes in mobility practices that result in carbon reduction. Our exploration of interdependent, imagined and embodied mobilities concurs with existing scholarship in the mobilities field that argues for a rethinking of individualised conceptions of ‘normality’, ‘habit’ and routine in seeking an understanding of mobilities that are socially, culturally and materially contingent.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)72-82
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Transport Geography
Volume55
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Jul 2016

Bibliographical note

© 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Keywords

  • Interdependent mobilities
  • Imagined mobilities
  • Embodied mobilities
  • Mobile methods
  • Disrupted mobilities
  • Habit, routine and normality

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