Co-Producing Mobilities: negotiating geographical knowledge in a conference session on the move

Abstract

In an experimental session entitled Co-Producing Mobilities held at the 2014 Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers Annual Conference, 20 mobility scholars travelled around London on foot, by bus and by Tube to investigate how mobilities could be considered co-produced. In this paper, 18 participants reflect on this collaborative experiment and on how it influenced their thinking about mobilities, geographical knowledge and pedagogy. Contributions cast light on the function of conferences and the multiple forms of pedagogy they enable, and provide guiding resources for those now wanting to continue such experiments.

Keywords:

• Mobility
• knowledge co-production
• pedagogy
• transport
• conference
• London

Acknoweldgements

Thanks are due to Gina Porter and Saurabh Arora who joined our journeys but were unable to contribute to the paper. We are also grateful to Stephanie Wyse and Rachel Taylor from the RGS-IBG who grappled with timetabling the unusual conference session from which this paper stems. Finally, thanks of the highest order are due to the editors of Journal of Geography in Higher Education David Higgitt and Derek France as well as the anonymous reviewers. Firstly, for even entertaining the notion of this paper but also for providing feedback which took seriously the paper’s intentions and offered ways to refine our thoughts and structure to make this experiment more successful. We’ll be forever grateful for your support and handling of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council [grant number ES/J500112/1], [grant number ES/J500148/1]; the Australian Research Council [grant number DE120102279]; the Canterbury Branch of the Royal Society of New Zealand for supporting Helen Fitt’s attendance at the conference.

Notes

1. The necessity of these so-called “mobile methods” are disputed however (see Merriman, 2014).

2. Further undated references will pertain to contributions within this paper.

3. “Go, run, faith will come to you, the body will sort things out. Knowledge sinks into it and from it re-emerges. Hidden in the shadow, the body slowly assimilates the simulated” (Serres, 2011, p. 26).

4. For more on the value of student led-initiatives see (Hawthorne & Fyfe, 2015).