Mobile methods

This article focuses on mobile methods and their relationship to the new mobilities paradigm and the central role of movement in the production of realities and social and socio-physical worlds. Rather than to offer a “research manual”, our goal is to present certain key examples in the use of such methods and to discuss how they may foster our understanding of mobilities in their social, political, epistemological, and emotional aspects. The examples are grouped around key themes: (1) moving and becoming, (2) moving and movement, (3) moving to be moved, and (4) moving with momentum. We conclude by suggesting that mobile methods can be instrumental in the making of a “public sociology” interested in producing social change.

Keywords:
Methodology; Mobilities; Movement; Emotion; Politics