Flows of Meaning, Cultures of Movements – Urban Mobility as Meaningful Everyday Life Practice

Abstract

Contemporary cities and places are defined by mobility and flows as much as by their sedentary and fixed properties. In the words of Shane the city may be seen as configured by ‘enclaves’ (fixed and bounded sites) and ‘armatures’ (infrastructure channels and transit spaces). This paper takes point of departure in a critique of such a sedentary/nomad dichotomy aiming at a third position of ‘critical mobility thinking’. The theoretical underpinning of this position reaches across cultural theory, human geography and into sociology. It includes a notion of a relational understanding of place, a networked sense of power and a re‐configuring of the way identities and belonging is being conceptualised. This theoretical framing leads towards re‐conceptualising mobility and infrastructures as sites of (potential) meaningful interaction, pleasure, and cultural production. The outcome is a theoretical argument for the exploration of the potentials of armature spaces in order to point to the importance of ‘ordinary’ urban mobility in creating flows of meaning and cultures of movement.

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