Short Abstract:

The panel explores how people make sense of and accord values to different forms of immobility in an era dominated by the over-valuation of mobility. By focusing on the ostensibly immobile, we aim to unwrite hegemonic discourses about both social and spatial mobility.

Long Abstract:

Our current era is often described as that of accelerated mobility or hypermobility. But what happens to those who are not mobile, who are “stuck”, “inactive”, “waiting”, “remaining”, “slow” or “left behind”? How do societal expectations and dominant discourses on mobility influence their experiences, perceptions, aspirations and practices? How can they make sense of their immobility, or accord it with meaning and values?

Mobility can mean movement from one place to another and between social positions (the two often coincide). However, social and spatial mobility is not only an increasingly prevalent practice but also a dominant discourse and normative expectation, which renders certain forms of mobility more valuable than others. These expectations also affect those who are seen as immobile; how they perceive themselves and construe their practices and aspirations. Yet these experiences of immobility are often overshadowed by the academic, political, and social prioritisation of mobility. Prevalent discourses furthermore often conceal the inequalities and the financial, emotional, and social costs behind moving, including how these influence those who are “immobile”.

We invite empirically grounded contributions that explore the above issues by examining different forms of immobility (e.g. being unemployed, staying put in peripheral regions, being “left behind” by the migration of family members, being “stuck” due to caring responsibilities, being “inactive” due to age/sickness, awaiting asylum decisions). By focusing on the experience of the “immobile”, we hope to contribute to the unwriting of the dominant discourse of (hyper)mobility as well as the inequalities it creates and hides.

This Panel has so far received 3 paper proposal(s).
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