If Mobility is Everything Then it is Nothing: Towards a Relational Politics of (Im)mobilities

Abstract

This paper is concerned with conceptions of mobility and immobility. Although I argue that practically everything is mobile, for mobility to be analytically useful as a term we must focus on the contingent relations between movements. Building upon theories of mobility from geography, sociology, cultural studies and, in particular, Urry's ‘mobility/moorings dialectic’, the paper draws these ideas out using examples from the airport terminal.