Maynooth (Ireland), 24-27 August 2010
*A new virtue? Imaginaries and regimes of mobility across the globe*
Convenors:
Noel B. Salazar (University of Leuven, Belgium):
noel.salazar@soc.kuleuven.be <mailto:noel.salazar@soc.kuleuven.be>
Pál Nyíri (Free University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands):
p.nyiri@fsw.vu.nl <mailto:p.nyiri@fsw.vu.nl>
Discussant:
Ulf Hannerz (Stockholm University, Sweden): ulf.hannerz@socant.su.se
<mailto:ulf.hannerz@socant.su.se>
Short abstract:**
This panel discusses and ethnographically compares how various forms of
border-crossing human (im)mobilities are given meaning and are
discursively framed as virtues or vices in societies and cultures across
the globe, both today and in a historical perspective.
Long abstract:**
It is fashionable to imagine the world in motion, with people, objects
and ideas traveling worldwide. Mobility is celebrated not just by
literati elites but also by governments, including those that have until
recently restricted it. Yet the same states are raising the barriers of
certain kinds of mobility ever higher. Anthropologists were among the
first to point out that not all mobilities are valued equally positively
and that the very processes that produce global mobilities also result
in immobility and exclusion. Drawing on a thematically and
geographically diverse set of ethnographic studies, this panel discusses
and compares how various forms of border-crossing human (im)mobilities
are discursively framed as a virtue or vice in societies and cultures
across the globe, both today and in a historical perspective. Individual
papers advance anthropological takes on the so-called "mobility turn" in
the social sciences by giving ethnographically-informed answers on the
following questions: Which forms of translocal mobility are currently
desirable (whether they are accessible or not) and to whom, and how does
the current situation compare to the past? Which socio-cultural meanings
and values are given to these mobilities and by whom? What is the
analytical purchase of (im)mobility as an overarching conceptual
framework to study and understand the current human condition? Is
mobility a better concept-metaphor to understand the contemporary world
than sedentarity? Why is mobility (not) the next grand narrative in
anthropology or the social sciences at large? Contributions on "newly
mobile" societies (e.g. China, Russia and India) are particularly welcome.
Submission of abstracts:
Online: http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2010/panels.php5?PanelID=575
Apart from your contact details, you are asked to supply a paper title,
a short 300-character abstract, and a 250-word abstract (NB: the
electronic submission software is strict about this and the character
count includes spaces).
Deadline: 1 March 2010
General information on the conference:
http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2010/index.htm
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact either of
the panel convenors.
