Short Abstract

This panel explores how people strive for a ‘good life’ and engage with im/mobility, broadly defined, in today’s world. What kind of dreams and imaginaries animate ideas of a ‘good life’? What kind of work goes into pursuing a dream? How do people cope with broken dreams and failed life projects?

Long Abstract

Although many people increasingly associate a ‘good life’ with a certain degree of mobility, movement in a world marked by great inequality is severely restricted for most people, and im/mobility is structured by political, social, and economic forces beyond the control of individuals and communities. Nevertheless, dreams and imaginaries of mobility – understood in its social, spatial and existential dimension (Hage 2009) – continue to play a crucial role in people’s often long-term life projects and the hopes that these carry with them and inspire. At the same time, dreams and hopes tend to have ambivalent and ambiguous effects on people’s pursuit of a ‘good life’ and a viable future. Furthermore, dreams and imaginaries are structured by the political economy, making only certain life projects appear possible to be imagined and acted upon for most people in the first place.

This panel invites ethnographically and theoretically grounded contributions to collectively think through the following questions: What kind of dreams and imaginaries animate people’s life projects and what do these life projects look like? How do dreams and imaginaries lead people to act? What kind of work or labour goes into pursuing a dream? When, how, and for whom do dreams and hopes lead to stagnation and a prolonged state of immobility rather than a sense of moving forward? How do people cope with broken dreams and failed life projects? How do they keep identifying alternatives, previously less likely possibilities, to keep up hope for a ‘good life’?

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