Pluralising the walking interview: researching (im)mobilities with Muslim women

Abstract

Within writing on walking practices, walking has often been presented as pleasurable, relaxing, and even liberatory. Research using walking interviews has recognised that different kinds of bodies can be excluded from mobile methods, impacting upon place-based knowledge production. However, the social and cultural politics of the walking interview remains underplayed, an omission that is acutely apparent in a context of urban diversity. This article investigates the ways in which walking practices intersect with social difference, particularly in relation to faith, ethnicity and gender. It argues for the need to pluralise mobile methods in order to more subtly address social distinctions, and further offers empirical observations on the embodied experiences and socio-spatial practices of Muslim women in the city of Birmingham, U.K.     

Stuck between ‘the rock’ and a hard place: rural crisis and re-imagining rural Newfoundland feminine subjectivities

There has been a growing body of research exploring the mobility experiences of rural youth as they migrate in search of work, education and leisure. In this article we contribute to this body of knowledge by examining the mobility experiences of young women (16–24 years) living on the southwest coast of Newfoundland, Canada. In contrast to dominant constructions of rural crisis that position out-of-the-way places as in decline, dying or dead, we argue that the young women in our study articulated complex, affective relations to place. In so doing, they negotiated localized histories, prevailing social relations, broader discursive constructions and embodied affective connections in forging their emplaced feminine subjectivities. We argue that foregrounding the complex and at times contradictory relationships that the young women articulated with their rural homes is an important step in prying open dominant albeit constraining constructions of the rural, thereby allowing for alternative and more inhabitable imaginings of out-of-the-way places.     

The automobile imperative: Risks of mobility and mobility-related risks

Each year, nearly one percent of Canadians is injured in traffic accidents. This paper focuses on the nature of road transportation risks in Canada ‐ the magnitude of the problem and the reasons for its persistence. A mobility‐based approach to road safety research is advocated because of its potential to both improve understanding and help work towards longterm solutions. The discussion is organized around two main themes: risks of mobility and mobility‐related risks. In the first instance, the focus is on linkages between quantity of travel/exposure and safety, especially over time. In the second theme, the emphasis is on linkages between quality of exposure and safety. Specific themes, including weather hazards and graduated licensing, are used to develop the second theme. The main conclusion is that casualty rates per unit of travel have declined over the past 25 years, largely due to improved engineering, enforcement and education, but that casualty levels and monetary costs remain high, largely because of the auto‐mobility imperative. Chaque année, près de 1% des canadiens se blessent dans des accidents de la route. Cette communication s'intéresse à la nature du risque routier au Canada, plus spécifiquement sur l'ampleur du problème et les raisons de sa persistance. Une approche axée sur la mobilité est préconisée pour son potentiel à apporter une meilleure compréhension du problème et à faciliter la mise en place de solutions à long‐terme. La discussion s'organise autour de deux thèmes centraux: 1) le risque de la mobilité et 2) les risques liés à la mobilité. En premier lieu, les liens entre la quantité des déplacements/exposition au risque et la sécurité sont investigués à travers le temps. Pour le deuxiéme thème, l'accent est mis sur les liens entre la qualité de l'exposition et la securité. Des thèmes spécifiques incluant les conditions météorologiques et l'expérience de conduite sont utilisés pour développer le deuxième thème. La principale conclusion est que les taux de blessures par unité de déplacement ont diminué au cours des 25 dernières années, ce qui est en grande partie attribuable au progrès en ingénierie, à la mise en place de mesures coercitives et à l'éducation. Toutefois, la gravité des blessures et les coûts monétaires qui y sont liés demeurent élevés principalement à cause des impératifs de la mobilité automobile.     

Towards a feminist geopolitics

The intersections and conversations between feminist geography and political geography have been surprisingly few. The notion of a feminist geopolitics remains undeveloped in geography. This paper aims to create a theoretical and practical space in which to articulate a feminist geopolitics. Feminist geopolitics is not an alternative theory of geopolitics, nor the ushering in of a new spatial order, but is an approach to global issues with feminist politics in mind. 'Feminist' in this context refers to analyses and political interventions that address the unequal and often violent relationships among people based on real or perceived differences. Building upon the literature from critical geopolitics, feminist international relations, and transnational feminist studies, I develop a framework for feminist political engagement. The paper interrogates concepts of human security and juxtaposes them with state security, arguing for a more accountable, embodied, and responsive notion of geopolitics. A feminist geopolitics is sought by examining politics at scales other than that of the nation-state; by challenging the public/private divide at a global scale; and by analyzing the politics of mobility for perpetrators of crimes against humanity. As such, feminist geopolitics is a critical approach and a contingent set of political practices operating at scales finer and coarser than the nation-state.     

广州城市内部居住迁移空间特征及其影响因素研究

居住迁移是家庭居住消费的空间调整过程,也是城市重构的基础动力,是西方地理学、规划学和社会学研究的主要内容。利用2001年和2005年在广州市进行的家庭住房问卷调查结果,文章分析了居住迁移空间特征、方向特征以及居住迁移方向的影响因素。分析结果显示,广州市居住迁移空间以就近迁移为主,在同一行政区范围内和邻近行政区间的迁移比重非常高,但从阶段演化来看,就近迁移有弱化趋势。迁移方向以老城区内和外围区内的迁移为主,其次为以老城区向外围区迁移。住房产权、家庭生命周期、家庭收入和迁移时间对居住迁移方向的影响显著,居住郊区化与住房自置率提高有关;单位房和房管局房建设是郊区化的主要动力之一。     

深圳市民迁居特征的时空分析

城市发展初期,大量域外劳动力迁入城市,促使城市地域迅速扩张。但当城市发展到一定阶段以后,城市人口的机械增长下降为次要因素,而城市地域内部的人口迁居成为影响城市发展以及内部空间结构变化的主导因素。本文以深圳市民问卷调查所得第一手资料为基础,通过对市民迁移性、迁居空间类型、迁居原因等的时空间分析,得到深圳市民迁居的时空间特征,并指出未来深圳市民迁居的空间趋势,以为城市内部空间结构调整提供参考。     

Locational Disadvantage and Household Locational Decisions: Changing Contexts and Responses in the Cessnock District of New South Wales,Australia. 1964–1999

Following the rapid demise of local coalmining in the 1950s and early 1960s, the former coal towns of the Cessnock area have survived in their newfound dormitory role, with cheap serviced housing acting as a major constraint on out–migration and an incentive for in–migration for low–income householders, mainly engaged in external commuting or outside the workforce. Behavioural responses to widening local job deficits in the early 1960s were reported in this journal (Holmes, 1965). From household surveys and other sources, Holmes examined the interplay between individual, household and locality variables and presented a spectrum of projected future outcomes for localities, according to accessibility, size and service provision, either attached to the Newcastle–Maitland labour market as low–income outer suburbs or experiencing varying rates of decline while providing low–cost welfare housing. While these broad trends have continued over the last 35 years, significant variants, not predictable in 1965 have emerged, notably: the increased residential attractiveness of some small localities; the strengthening of welfare migration, notably from Sydney; the increase in non–workforce households; and, some evidence of emerging socio–economic polarisation in larger towns. In these respects, Cessnock localities can be viewed as a microcosm of wider trends in Australian society, trends which are most fully revealed in disadvantaged metropolitan peripheral localities.     

PATHS IN TRANSNATIONAL TIME-SPACE: REPRESENTING MOBILITY BIOGRAPHIES OF YOUNG SWEDES

This article sets out to capture and describe individual transnational mobility from a long‐term, biographical perspective. The purpose is to discuss the use of a time‐geographical form of notation to represent people's transnational mobility as paths in time and space, and to demonstrate how such representations can contribute to explaining some of the dynamics of longdistance mobility. An advantage of using time‐space paths is that several aspects of an individual's travel biography can be represented in a single image: intensity and extensity are immediately evident, and the temporal and spatial relationships between the various mobility actions are made visible. Using data describing all transnational trips taken during childhood and adolescence by sixty‐two Swedish youth with different backgrounds, three aspects of how trajectories develop over time are discussed in more detail. The first concerns overall change in travel pattern with time. A dominant pattern of increase in travel with increasing age is observed, indicating the importance of further investigating how travel behaviour is related to experience and life‐course transitions. Second, sequential relationships between migration and temporary mobility are examined. In spite of the relatively small number of respondents, a wide range of such relationships are disclosed in the material. Third, regularity and repetition in long‐distance travel patterns is discussed as an increasingly important aspect of contemporary transnational mobility. Among these young people, highly regular travel is often motivated by enduring long‐distance social relationships, but is also generated by leisure or holiday travel alone.     

国外旅游地社会文化变迁研究述评

论文介绍了国外旅游社会文化变迁研究状况,分别从旅游者、旅游地社区、旅游业以及全球化与地方互动的视角总结了国外旅游地社会文化变迁研究在理论与方法上的主要进展,评述了旅游者类型、旅游凝视、旅游者表演、旅游者阅读、旅游地生命周期理论、社区响应模式及其各种理论解释、文化环理论、旅游创造性破坏模型等在旅游地社会文化变迁研究中的贡献与不足,并指出了近年来国外旅游社会文化变迁研究具有流动性与表演性、社会文化生产与创造性破坏、非线性与复杂性等特点。