The Paradigm Shift in the Studies of Movement
Archaeological Studies of Hominin Dispersals --> Migration Studies --> Mobilities Studies
Humans have been moving from one place to another since pre-historical times. Archaeological Studies have shown that even the primates (who are believed to be the ancestors of modern humans) moved from place to place in search of food or other resources or other various reasons such as climate. The dispersal of the hominin species such as Homo Ergaster and Homo Erectus around the world even though the point of origin was Africa has been proven by Archaeological Studies as well. Even the modern species of humans what we call Homo Sapiens were once nomads who lived as hunters/gatherers who gradually started to settle down in one place living in social groups and the means of livelihood being agriculture.
Considering such history of the movement of different species of humans like the ones mentioned above to the Homo Neanderthalensis to the modern Homo Sapiens, Social Sciences and Humanities Studies have always almost looked at such movement only from the perspectives of the act of moving only, i.e., moving from a point A to the other point B. Even the present Studies on Migration/Immigration issues are somewhat limited in that these studies define the push and pull factors from either economic or political standpoint, or these range of topics are discussed in terms of host nations and home nations.
This natural and common movement of people has become political these days. By approaching movement from such a narrow point of view only, we tend to ignore the factors behind the movement, the factors involved in the movement, the process and procedure of the movement itself, the infrastructures required for the movement, and more importantly, in the present context, the limitations posed to the movement of the people owing to the various factors. That is where the Mobilities Studies come in. Mobility is a critique of the sedentary outlook on movement.
Mobilities Theory, thus, studies the movement of not only an individual or an individual unit but also the socio-economic-political aspects behind the behind. Mobilities Theory explores the Spaces, the use of the same Spaces by different people in a different way for different reasons. The human geographic definitions of Spaces, Private Spaces versus Public Spaces, Places, and Non-Places are explored even further in Mobilities Studies from various angles. Thus, although the very term mobilities suggest the only movement, and the Mobilities Studies go beyond that superficial level of the act of moving into the in-depth dynamics of the movement. This means that the paradigm of Mobilities Studies is a multi-disciplinary approach to study that movement encompassing the fields and sub-fields of Anthropology, Social Sciences, Humanities, Geography, Human Geography, Political Science, Economics, Tourism Studies, Transportation, Physical Infrastructures, Health, Gender, Migration, Immigration, Displacement, etc. The flow of ideas is another aspect that Mobility Studies explores.
The most interesting thing to me about Mobilities Studies is that it studies not only the movement of the bodies or macro-mobility but also about the movement within the bodies itself or micro-mobility. For example, migration is an example of physical displacement which is macro-mobility. The flow of blood within our bodies, for example, is an example of micro-mobility. Some scholars have given accounts of how blood becomes mobile in both ways: internally as well as externally. I will examine these topics in the future.
From the flow of ideas and information to the flow of the blood in our bodies, so many things visible and invisible to our naked eyes are mobile. We are mobile all the time. When we are simply sitting down or even sleeping, we can say that although our entire body is not mobile perhaps; but the internal flow of hormones, blood, and other bodily fluids are mobile within us that time. Not only that, the earth is mobile every single moment; and along with the earth, we are moving too.
Some of the most important scholars of Mobilities Studies are John Urry, Tim Cresswell, Noel B. Salazar, David Bissell, Mimi Sheller, etc. For this introductory post, I am going to limit the length to this post only. Although I had hoped to create an extensive research format post with quotes from scholars and with detailed citations, I was not able to do so due to some personal/family issues that affected me. This post is based on the ideas that I have gained this semester from my Mobilities class, and also the classes that I have taken so far in Human Geography, Archaeology, Anthropology, Sociology, Immigration, and other classes of International Relations and Global Studies. Thus, the ideas presented are the knowledge that I have gained over the period of time; meaning that although I have written this post, the ideas are based on the Scholars of these various fields that I have read so far. Thus, I want to clarify that these ideas presented themselves are not my own theories.
