Introduction: guest editorial for special issue ‘gender and im(mobilities)’

Abstract

The research articles in this themed section examine gendered constellations of (im)mobilities with respect to work, class, livelihoods, and place. The issue includes selected articles presented at the interdisciplinary conference ‘Gender and (Im)mobilities in the Context of Work’ that took place in Tromsø, Norway June 15-17, 2016. To address different aspects of interlinking mobility, immobility, gender, and economy, the authors use feminist theoretical frameworks developed in various academic disciplines together with a range of methods, ranging from ethnography to quantitative analysis and innovative combinations of both. The first set of articles that examine the gendering of spaces of everyday mobile work also highlight the relationship between place and gendered narratives of the economy, mobility and fixity and show that mobility is integral to construction of and thinking about place. In the second set of articles, the focus shifts to the households of mobile workers and/or the mobile workers themselves. Despite being separated by large distances, home and place of work remain intimately connected and fused with each other in many ways. Mobile work changes gender relations within the households while mobile workplaces are constantly affected by workers caring for family left behind and the need for care work for the mobile workforce that commonly happens in the households.

Keywords:

• Gender
• (im)mobility
• Nordic and Baltic region and Canada
• place
• work-related mobility

Acknowledgements

The conference ‘Gender and (Im)mobilities in the Context of Work’ was initiated by the research project ‘Mobile Lifestyles: Perspectives on Work Mobilities and Gender in the High North’. The conference was also supported by ‘On The Move Partnership’ that conducts research on Employment-Related Geographical Movement in the Canadian Context under the leadership of Barbara Neis, Memorial University, Newfoundland, Canada. As guest editors, we note that the peer review process was a productive challenge to our multidisciplinary and international team with invaluable experience of publishing in English language geography journals. Marianna Pavlovskaya, a geography professor from Hunter College and Graduate Center at City University of New York (CUNY), also a visiting professor II at KVINNFORSK, played an important role in organizing the special issue and turning conference contributions to publishable articles.

There are many more who deserve our gratitude. The Managing Editor of Gender, Place and Culture, Pamela Moss, supported from the very beginning our initiative to publish a special issue on gender and (im)mobilities and led us through the revision and publication process. Together with her editorial assistant, Maral Sotoudehnia, they also provided indispensable practical help with the editorial process. We also thank Lise Nordbrønd and Torunn Berger of KVINNFORSK for their involvement and support throughout. The visiting PhD students Baiba Svane and Arta Melupe from the Department of Geography and Earth Science at the University of Latvia provided valuable assistance at the last stages. Other participants of ‘Mobile Lifestyles: Perspectives on Work Mobilities and Gender in the High North’ project Ingrid Marie Kielland, Mai Camilla Munkejord, Paul Pedersen and Tatiana Wara have made rich contributions to the discussions resulting in this conference.

Notes on contributors

Marianna Pavlovskaya is a Professor of Geography at Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center. She has a PhD in geography from Clark University and does research on urban geography, feminist geography, and critical GIS (Geographic Information Science). Her current work examines the production of economic difference and work-related gendered migration in post-Soviet Russia and geographies of the solidarity economy in the United States. In 2015-2016, she held a position of Professor II (visiting professor), at the Center for Women and Gender Research (Kvinnforsk) at Arctic University in Tromsø, Norway. Her work appeared in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Geoforum, Europe-Asia Studies, Environment and Planning A, Cartographica, Urban Geography, and many edited volumes. Most recently, she co-edited a forthcoming book Rethinking Neoliberalism: Resisting the Disciplinary Regime to which she also contributed a chapter on normalization of poverty in Russia through metrics.

Siri Gerrard is now a professor emerita in gender studies at KVINNFORSK (Center for Women and Gender Research) at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. She has been connected to several departments at UiT and has applied interdisciplinary approaches in her research about fisheries, fisheries communities and mobilities. Her work has been and is concentrated on gender and (im)mobile cultures in rural coastal areas, mostly in North Norway, but also in Africa. Her current interests include women coastal fishers and their challenges as well as the political, economic, social and cultural conditions of the small, coastal communities in today’s neoliberal regime. She participates in local as well as world-wide networks and publishes in national and international academic journals and local popular media.

Marit Aure is professor in gender studies in Sociology at Department of Social Sciences at UIT The Arctic University of Norway. She holds a PhD in planning and community studies and applies interdisciplinary approaches in her research on work-related mobility in the petroleum industry, internal and international migration, place and communities. Her work involves questions of gender, households, age, ethnicity and intersectionality. Her current interests include arts in migrant integration, masculinities, women in management and intergenerational care. Aure cooperates with municipalities and associations in Northern Norway and publishes in national and international academic journals, newspapers and popular media.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The conference ‘Gender and (Im)mobilities in the Context of Work’ was funded by the Norwegian Research Council; Center for Women and Gender Research, KVINNFORSK; and with support from the research group ‘Place, Power and Mobility’ at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.