Established at Lancaster University in the early 2000s, “mobilities research” has been reshaping how sociologists think about social life and how society changes. It asks us to look beyond the simple journey from A to B, and to notice how people, objects, stories, ideas, and images all move—or sometimes don’t move—through the world. It asks us to explore how society and culture is made and shaped by these movements. It also asks us to notice the systems and infrastructures that make these flows possible, or that hold them back.
Mimi Sheller’s work on mobility justice pushes this further, reminding us that mobility is never neutral. Having the freedom to move—whether physically, socially, or digitally—is also a form of power. Access to these forms of movement is unequally shared, and that inequality shapes everyday life in profound ways. Elliott and Urry develop an idea of “network capital”: the ability to be connected with people, places, ideas, and resources. Those who have more of it can act in and on the world more easily; those who lack it face hidden constraints.
In my work I explore how this way of thinking has a lot to offer when we look at autobiographical practices—the ways people bring their lives into the world to share experiences, support others, or create resources for change. Here, mobility is not only about bodies in motion, but also about what we might call informational mobility and knowledge mobility: the ability for life stories to be created, shared, circulated, and responded to across time and space. I argue that having the means to tell a story that travels, that connects with receptive audiences, or that reaches people in positions of influence, is itself a kind of network capital.
Thinking about autobiographical practices through mobilities is something that I am pioneering. Here are some links to recent papers where I explore some of the different connections between these fields, and where I develop the concepts of immobile autobiography, mobile autobiography, and autobiographical mobilisations.
Peace, L. and Spurling, N. J. (2024) Auto/biography and mobilities in the time of climate emergency, Mobilities, 19(5), 807–822.
Spurling, N. J. (2022) Intergenerational (Im)mobilities. Mobility Humanities, v.1, n.2, p.95-116