Applied mobilities, transitions and opportunities

摘要

The mobilities paradigm has, during the last decade, proven its usefulness in investigating how the socio-material mobilities of modern societies have transformed fundamental aspects of social interaction, communication and exchange (Cresswell 2006; Hannam, Sheller, and Urry 2006; Sheller and Urry 2006; Adey et al. 2013; Sheller 2014; Sheller and Urry this issue). The multiple dimensions of contemporary mobilities have been investigated by scholars from many different disciplines and it has been shown to be an ambivalent and reflexive phenomenon (Kesselring 2008; Freudendal-Pedersen 2014). Mobilities have brought about positive economic and social effects, such as wealth, international cultures of collaboration and exchange. But at the same time, issues such as increasing inequalities, climate change, urban sprawl and highly mobile energy-consuming lifestyles have put questions of sustainability centre stage.