Anthropological Takes on (Im)Mobility

Abstract

In this introduction, we outline the general conceptual framework that ties the various contributions to this special issue together. We argue for the importance of anthropology to “take on” mobility and discuss the advantages of the ethnographic approach in doing so. What is the analytical purchase of mobility as one of the root metaphors in contemporary anthropological theorizing? What are the (dis)advantages of looking at the current human condition through the lens of mobility? There is a great risk that the fast-growing field of mobility studies neglects different interpretations of what is going on, or that only patterns that fit the mobilities paradigm will be considered, or that only extremes of (hyper)mobility or (im)mobility will be given attention. The ethnographic sensibilities of fieldworkers who learn about mobility while studying other processes and issues, and who can situate movement in the multiple contexts between which people move, can both extend the utility of the mobilities approach, and insist on attention to other dynamics that might not be considered if the focus is first and last on (im)mobility as such. In this special issue, we do not want to discuss human mobility as a brute fact but rather analyze how mobilities, as sociocultural constructs, are experienced and imagined.

Keywords:

• Mobility
• immobility
• anthropology
• ethnography

Acknowledgments

Earlier versions of the articles in this special issue were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Philadelphia (2–6 December 2009), in a session organized by Noel B. Salazar and kindly sponsored by the Society for Cultural Anthropology. We would like to thank the audience, all session participants, and especially Mimi Sheller, for their comments and suggestions.