SGO9203 – The politics of human mobility
Course description
Course content
This course explores the politics of human mobility, emphasizing theoretical perspectives founded in human geography. The politics of mobility can be understood as the ways in which mobilities shape and are shaped by social relations that involve the production and distribution of power. Recent research on mobilities examines a great diversity of mobile phenomenon, and this course concentrates specifically on the mobility of people. Such mobilities (and immobilities) can be explored at multiple scales, including the local, the urban, and the transnational. Mobilities may also be produced through the relations between scales, an issue that will be addressed in this course. By focusing on how mobility relates to power, we seek to explore common theoretical themes that cut across sub-fields such as political geography, urban geography, and the geography of migration and transnationalism.
The course is organized by the Department of Sociology and Human Geography in collaboration with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). It is offered in conjunction with the Norwegian Network on Geographies of Mobilities (NNGM), a research network funded by the Research Council of Norway.
The third day of the course is also a gathering of the NNGM and features presentations of work in progress by NNGM members.
Lecturers
Tim Cresswell, Northeastern University
Katherine Gough, Loughborough University
Per Gunnar R?e, University of Oslo
J?rgen Carling, Peace Research Institute Oslo
Marta Bivand Erdal, Peace Research Institute Oslo
Admission
The course is open to applications from all interested Ph.D. students. PhD students at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo gain theory-points and register for the course in StudentWeb.
Interested participants outside the department shall fill out this application form.
The deadline for applications is 17th August 2015.
Teaching
Schedule
The course is located in room 221 Harriet Holters Building
Monday 12 October
09.00–09.15 Welcome and introductions
09.15–10.45 Katherine Gough (Lecture 1)
10.45–11.00 Break
11.00–12.30 Per Gunnar R?e
12.30–13.15 Lunch
13.15–17.00 Presentations by 5 PhD candidates
Tuesday 13 October
09.00–10.30 J?rgen Carling
10.30–10.45 Break
10.45–12.15 Katherine Gough (Lecture 2)
12.15–13.00 Lunch
13.00–16.45 Presentations by 5 PhD candidates
Wednesday 14 October
09.00–10.30 Marta Bivand Erdal
10.30–10.45 Break
10.45–12.15 Tim Cresswell (Lecture 1)
12.15–13.00 Lunch
13.00–16.30 Presentations by NNGM members
Thursday 15 October
09.00–10.30 Tim Cresswell (Lecture 2)
10.30–10.45 Break
10.45–12.15 Presentations by 2 PhD candidates
12.15–13.00 Lunch
13.00–14.30 Presentations by 2 PhD candidates
14.30–15.30 Concluding discussion
Readings
Katherine Gough
Mobility over the life course
Rogaly, B. (2015) 'Disrupting migration stories: reading life histories through the lens of mobility and fixity.' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 33(3):528-544.
Swe, Y.Y. (2013) 'Mobility encounter: The narratives of Burmese refugees in Norway.' Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography, 67(4):229-238.
Yeoh, B.S.A. and Ramdas, K. (2014) 'Gender, migration, mobility and transnationalism.' Gender, Place & Culture, 21(10):1197-1213.
Findlay, A., McCollum, D., Coulter, R. and Gayle, V. (2015) 'New Mobilities Across the Life Course: a Framework for Analysing Demographically Linked Drivers of Migration.' Population, Space and Place, 21(4):390-402.
Dufty-Jones, R. (2012) 'Moving Home: Theorizing Housing Within a Politics of Mobility.' Housing, Theory and Society, 29(2):207-222.
Per Gunnar R?e
Urban travel mobilities and inequalities
Cass, N., Shove, E. and Urry, J. 2005. 'Social exclusion, mobility and access'. The Sociological Review, 53(3): 539 -555.
Jensen, O. B. 2009. 'Flows of Meaning, Cultures of Movements – Urban Mobility as Meaningful Everyday Life Practice'. Mobilities, 4(1): 139-158.
Kaufman, V.; Bergman, M. M. and Joyce, D. 2004. 'Motility: Mobility as Capital'. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 28(4): 745-756.
Preston, J. and Rajé, F. 2007. 'Accessibility, mobility and transport-related social exclusion'. Journal of Transport Geography, 15(3): 151–160.
R?e, P. G. 2000. 'Qualitative research on intra-urban travel: an alternative approach'. Journal of Transport Geography, 8(2): 99-106.
Shaw, J. and Hesse, M. 2010. 'Transport, geography and the ‘new’ mobilities'. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 35(3): 305–312
J?rgen Carling
Power relations of mobility and immobility
Bakewell, O. (2011) 'Conceptualising Displacement and migration: Processes, conditions, and categories.' in Koser, K. and Martin, S. (eds) The migration-displacement nexus: Patterns, processes, and policies. Oxford: Berghahn Books, 14-28.
Carling, J. (2002) 'Migration in the age of involuntary immobility: Theoretical reflections and Cape Verdean experiences.' Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 28(1):5-42.
Carling, J. (2008) 'The human dynamics of migrant transnationalism.' Ethnic and Racial Studies, 31(8):1452-1477.
Katherine Gough
Mobility and livelihoods
Gough, K.V. (2008) '‘Moving Around’: The social and spatial mobility of youth in Lusaka.' Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 90(3):243-255.
Kloppenburg, S. and Peters, P. (2012) 'Confined Mobilities: Following Indonesian Migrant Workers on Their Way Home.' Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 103(5):530-541.
Kusakabe, K., Lund, R., Mishra Panda, S., Wang, Y. and Vongphakdy, S. (2014) 'Resettlement in Lao PDR: mobility, resistance and gendered impacts.' Gender, Place & Culture, 22(8):1089-1105.
Langevang, T. and Gough, K.V. (2009) 'Surviving through movement: the mobility of urban youth in Ghana.' Social & Cultural Geography, 10(7):741-756.
Rao, N. (2013) 'Migration, mobility and changing power relations: aspirations and praxis of Bangladeshi migrants.' Gender, Place & Culture, 21(7):872-887.
Turner, S. and Schoenberger, L. (2012) 'Street Vendor Livelihoods and Everyday Politics in Hanoi, Vietnam: The Seeds of a Diverse Economy?' Urban Studies, 49(5):1027-1044.
Marta Bivand Erdal
International migration, citizenship and the politics of belonging
Antonsich, M. (2010) 'Searching for Belonging – An Analytical Framework.' Geography Compass, 4(6):644-659.
Baub?ck, R. (2003) 'Towards a political theory of migrant transnationalism.' International Migration Review, 37(3):700-723.
Brubaker, R. (2010) 'Migration, Membership, and the Modern Nation-State: Internal and External Dimensions of the Politics of Belonging.' Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 41(1):61-78.
Erdal, M.B. (2012) 'A Place to Stay in Pakistan': Why Migrants Build Houses in their Country of Origin.' Population Space and Place, 18(5):629-641.
Tim Cresswell
On friction
Clausewitz Cv. (2007) On war, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tim Cresswell, "Towards a Politics of Mobility," Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28, no. 1 (2010): 17-31
Chris Rumford “Rethinking European Spaces: Territory, Borders, Governance,” Comparative European Politics 4 (2006): 127-140
Tsing AL. (2005) Friction : an ethnography of global connection, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. (Introduction).
Tim Cresswell
Black Moves: Moments in the History of African American Mobility
Simone Browne, "Everybody's Got a Little Light under the Sun Black Luminosity and the Visual Culture of Surveillance," Cultural Studies 26, no. 4 (2012): 542-64, 548
Tim Cresswell, "Towards a Politics of Mobility," Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28, no. 1 (2010): 17-31
Ananya Jahanara Kabir, "Oceans, Cities, Islands: Sites and Routes of Afro-Diasporic Rhythm Cultures," Atlantic Studies 11, no. 1 (2014): 106-24, 107.
Examination
Each participant is requested to send in a one-page description of her/his Ph.D.-project (aim, research questions and methodological approaches) to katalin.godberg@sosgeo.uio.no, two weeks before the start of the course, on 28th September 2015.
The entire four-day event makes up the PhD course, with the equivalent of 6 credits. For approval, this includes writing a paper of minimum 4 000 words to be submitted by 1 December 2015. Participants are requested to present their own work, focusing specifically on how it relates to the politics of mobility. The paper is to be sent to katalin.godberg@sosgeo.uio.no.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a pass/fail scale. Read more about the grading system.