Mobility and Geographical Scales

The concept of mobility has grown enormously over the last two decades. A large part of the social sciences has been interested in the different forms of mobility, from a wide variety of spatial and temporal scales.

This book presents the different spatial and temporal scales of mobility and the way in which they form a system, by associating them with essential and original research objects. It provides an in-depth review of scientific knowledge, a perspective on major societal issues, analytical tools and a discussion on the main current academic debates.

The authors highlight the need to take into account both the spatial and temporal scales of mobility in order to address contemporary environmental and societal issues. The book invites us to think about the entanglement of these different scales from the analysis of rhythms by founding a rhythmology of contemporary mobilities.

Guillaume Drevon is a researcher at the Luxembourg Institute of Socioeconomic Research (LISER), and an associate researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. His work focuses on the transformation of individual and collective rhythms in contemporary societies.

Vincent Kaufmann is professor of urban sociology and mobility analysis at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and scientific director of the Forum Vies Mobiles. His work focuses on mobility and the transformation of contemporary societies and territories.

Chapter 1 Collective Thinking About Mobility Scales 1
Vincent KAUFMANN and Guillaume DREVON

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 The notion of mobility in social sciences 3

1.3 The need for an integrative approach 5

1.4 A new research arena 8

1.5 Articulating spatial and temporal mobility scales 9

1.6 References 11

Chapter 2 A Society with No Respite: Mobility as an Interdisciplinary Concept 15
Christophe MINCKE

2.1 Introduction 15

2.2 Mobility as a scale of magnitudes in a reticent capitalism (Boltanski and Chiapello) 17

2.2.1 Justifying inequalities 17

2.2.2 Inequalities in a reticular context: the project-based city 18

2.2.3 Project-based cities and mobility 19

2.3 Movement: the central element of liquid modernity (Bauman) 20

2.3.1 Dissolution and anchoring of solid modernity 20

2.3.2 The fading of ends and limits 21

2.3.3 The individual, the model, shopping 22

2.4 The alienating acceleration (Hartmut Rosa) 24

2.4.1 Acceleration 24

2.4.2 Three critiques of acceleration 25

2.5 The turning point of mobility (Urry and Sheller) 27

2.5.1 Mobilities as an analyzer of social matters 27

2.5.2 Mobilities in weak link societies 28

2.5.3 The social aspect of mobility 29

2.6 Mobility as an injunction (Mincke and Montulet) 29

2.6.1 Two spatiotemporal morphologies 30

2.6.2 Mobility shifts 31

2.6.3 The mobilitarian ideal 32

2.7 Contextualizing research on mobilities 34

2.8 References 36

Chapter 3 Mobility Justice as a Political Object 37
Caroline GALLEZ

3.1 Introduction 37

3.2 Inequality and mobility justice in contemporary Western societies 38

3.3 Social justice and mobility, theoretical approaches 40

3.4 Inequalities and equity in transport and urban planning 42

3.4.1 Integrating equity in the evaluation of transport policies 43

3.4.2 Moving from inequalities in mobility to inequalities in access to facilities 44

3.4.3 Evaluating equity of access to facilities 45

3.5 Mobility justice: contributions from the social sciences 47

3.5.1 Ambiguities of mobility 48

3.5.2 Mobility regimes and differentiation of mobility rights 49

3.5.3 Mobility justice in the face of the ecological emergency and social inequalities 51

3.6 Beyond inequalities, mobility justice 53

3.7 References 54

Chapter 4 Appropriations and Uses of Travel Time: How to Inhabit Mobility 63
Juliana GONZÁLEZ

4.1 Introduction 63

4.2 The emergence of a research field in search of a position 64

4.3 The basis for exploring the uses of travel time 65

4.3.1 What are the uses of travel time for each mode of transport? 67

4.3.2 What theoretical frameworks should be used to address the qualitative dimension of travel time? 72

4.4 Inhabiting travel time: at what cost to the environment? 74

4.5 The relevance of mixed methods for building a common survey base 75

4.6 Major research studies 77

4.7 Discussions and research perspectives 78

4.8 References 79

Chapter 5 Designing Space for Walking as the Primary Mode of Travel 87
Sébastien LORD and Mathilde LOISELLE

5.1 Introduction 87

5.2 A diversity of approaches to the objective conditions of walking, first of all a question of scale? 90

5.2.1 Walkability of the city and the neighborhood 90

5.2.2 The urban quality and the walking environment 91

5.2.3 Applications for the development of walking environments 93

5.3 The conditions of operation, what is the place for the walker's experience? 95

5.3.1 The subjectivity of walking in its social and sensory dimensions 95

5.3.2 The atmosphere and its components 97

5.3.3 On the hermeneutic significance of atmospheres in the practice of walking 100

5.4 What are the challenges of the scales of analysis for intervention in living environments? 101

5.5 References 103

Chapter 6 Residential Trajectories and Ways of Living: An Overview of France and Europe 107
Samuel CARPENTIER-POSTEL

6.1 Introduction 107

6.2 Residential choice as social positioning 108

6.2.1 Classical models. 109

6.2.2 .. to mobility turn 110

6.3 Elements of analysis of residential mobility in France and Europe 112

6.3.1 General spatial dynamics of residential mobility 112

6.3.2 Differentiation by life course 114

6.3.3 Differentiation by social position 117

6.4 Discussion and perspectives: toward new ways of living 121

6.4.1 Multifaceted emerging practices 121

6.4.2 Toward comprehensive and biographical approaches 124

6.5 Conclusion 126

6.6 References 127

Chapter 7 City, State, Transnational Space: Scales and Multidisciplinary Approaches of Migrations 133
Garance CLÉMENT and Camille GARDESSE

7.1 Introduction 133

7.2 Myths and realities of contemporary migration 134

7.2.1 A majority of interregional migration 134

7.2.2 More diversified and feminized international migration? 135

7.2.3 Deconstructing the European "migration crisis" 137

7.3 "Transnationalism", "privilege" and "bordering": taking into account other scales of migration 139

7.3.1 From "immigrants" to "migrants" 140

7.3.2 The notion of migratory privilege 141

7.3.3 The contributions of border studies 143

7.4 Cities in migration studies 144

7.4.1 Spatial dispersion policies and practices 145

7.4.2 A local turn in migration governance? 146

7.4.3 Thinking about reception and hospitality 147

7.5 Investigating migration 148

7.6 Conclusion 151

7.7 References 152

Chapter 8 Work and High Mobility in Europe 161
Emmanuel RAVALET

8.1 Introduction 161

8.2 High work-related mobility 162

8.2.1 Intensive daily commuting 163

8.2.2 Weekly commuting 165

8.2.3 Fluctuating commuting patterns 166

8.2.4 Frequent travel for work 167

8.3 The profile of the highly mobile population 168

8.4 Reasons for the use of large-scale work-related mobility 169

8.5 The experience of high work-related mobility 172

8.6 High mobility linked to work and digital technology, what prospects? 173

8.7 Conclusion 175

8.8 References 176

Chapter 9 Event-Driven Mobility: From a Theoretical Approach to Practical Management 185
Pascal VIOT

9.1 Introduction: the challenges of contemporary event-driven mobility 185

9.2 Mobility and major events: testing the host territory 187

9.3 A qualitative and quantitative test 188

9.4 Road policing strategy 189

9.5 Toward a mobility turn of event-driven management practices 191

9.5.1 The engineer's planning strategy 192

9.5.2 The user-spectator's experience pathway 194

9.5.3 The development of event mobility management practices 196

9.6 Conclusion: toward a sociology of event-driven mobility 197

9.7 References 198

Chapter 10 Inland Navigation: Rethinking Mobility from an Aquatic Perspective 201
Laurie DAFFE

10.1 Introduction 201

10.2 Societal and environmental issues of inland navigation 202

10.2.1 Modal share of inland waterways in the European Union 202

10.2.2 Prospects for the development of river activities and the shift from road to waterways 203

10.2.3 Faster, less far, more anchored: the scales of future navigation 206

10.3 Current state of knowledge 207

10.3.1 Aquatic mobility, an emerging field of research 208

10.3.2 Small-scale inland navigation and "people of the river," flurban lifestyles 209

10.3.3 Trajectories of houseboats and river dwellers 210

10.3.4 Toward "wet ontologies" 211

10.3.5 The watery turn: grasping mobilities from an aquatic perspective 213

10.4 Conclusion: meeting between water and land 216

10.5 References 217

Chapter 11 Temporary Mobilities and Neo-Nomadism 221
Arnaud LE MARCHAND

11.1 Introduction 221

11.2 State of current knowledge and major references 222

11.2.1 Socioeconomics of temporary labor migration 222

11.2.2 Neo-nomadism and countercultures 224

11.3 Challenges for contemporary societies 226

11.4 Survey methodologies, analysis with missing data 229

11.5 Place in general sociology 232

11.6 Status of scientific debates and controversies in the field 234

11.7 References 235

Chapter 12 Towards a Rhythmology of Mobile Societies 241
Guillaume DREVON and Vincent KAUFMANN

12.1 Limitations of the concept of mobility 241

12.2 Thinking about the entanglement of mobilities using forms of rhythm 243

12.3 Responding to the challenges of mobility research with a rhythmology of mobile societies 244

12.4 References 246

List of Authors 249

Index 251

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