How movement becomes mobility
César Torres
Senior Project Manager
8 June 2021
How does movement between point A and point B become mobility? What can be found in that line linking A to B? Building on Professor Tim Cresswell’s work, who currently occupies the Ogilvie Chair of Geography at the University of Edinburgh, I will make sure that the contents of this line are not taken for granted.
It is important to think of movement as the dynamic equivalent of location as this may be something everyone is more familiar with. Location, in abstract space, is purely the physical point defined by A or B. It is devoid of meaning or history, cultural context or ideologies.
If movement is the dynamic equivalent of location, then mobility is the dynamic equivalent of place. A place, unlike location, is full of meaning. We create bonds with places and build relationships that make us become attached to them, we experience them.
Mobility is just as central to the human experience of the world as place. While including movement, mobility is about the potential or ability to move and the meaning, practices and experiences of moving.
It is time now to break down the three key elements that relate to mobility.
Movement
First, we talk about mobility as the empirical fact of movement. This is the aspect of mobility that has been extensively measured and analysed by transport modellers and planners.
Meaning
Second, there is an aspect of mobility that relates to how it is represented and the meanings it produces. Different ideas associated with mobility are represented differently in movies, literature, medicine, law or philosophy. In this sense, the fact of getting from A to B acquires a meaning of freedom and adventure, of individuality or belonging, of transgression and creativity, even of significant changes in our lives.
Experience
Third, mobility is an embodied experience. For example, often I am unable to sleep in the plane when I fly back to Spain to visit my loved ones, so eager to touch down. The way we move is a reflection of our mood as we are not just people moving. We are pedestrians, drivers, runaways, students, athletes, dancers, tourists, businesspeople, citizens. The journey is an emotional experience.
Source: thelmaandlouise.com
These three elements of mobility are bound up with one another. I would argue that understanding mobility without the meanings we give it through representation or how it is experienced and embodied, is to miss the point.
However, what practical implications does this have? To facilitate the understanding, I am going to use a couple of day-to-day examples. First, what are some of the meanings of cycling to work and what do I experience through that line from home to work?
How does this change when I have to take the bus because it is pouring and windy outside?
These are just a couple of examples of the multiple meanings and experiences that relate to cycling or public transport. They reflect a shift from understanding travel as valueless empty movement from A to B to a practice that is invested with meaning and perceptions, and productive in many ways.
But movement also becomes mobility through the social process of producing space and time. Inventions like the railway or the private car meant places were significantly closer. They made possible, for example, to commute farther enabling a distinction between home and work as spaces with a different function.
This time we spend travelling, either commuting or for leisure, has traditionally been perceived by the industry and policy makers as something wasteful that needs to be minimised. However, we now understand that these experiences are much more varied. Travel time may be an opportunity to get your mind ready for work, a necessary transition between two spaces with a different function. Commuting could also represent valuable time out from responsibilities of both work and home life.
As a final remark, I would like to point out that if we are to make our transport systems sustainable and just, significant changes in our mobility behaviours must be instigated. For this to be successful, we need to understand that such behaviours are the result of complex interactions between individuals and the material, social, economic, political, technological and cultural environments in which they are embedded.
This will only be achieved if we approach mobility as a social practice in which a body, infrastructures, capabilities, feelings of comfort, beliefs, experiences, vulnerabilities, encounters, are continuously entangled.
So, what do you think the mobility restrictions brought about by the pandemic mean for our future behaviour as mobile subjects? What do you think we have learned of our current mobility practices and transport systems? Are they sustainable? Are they just? Are they safe?
I personally believe that we really need to think hard as we re-emerge from the mobility restrictions brought about by the pandemic. Unless a magnificent carbon capture programme emerges very soon, we will have to think about significant behavioural changes to how we move.
