Mobilities

Abstract

Starting in the 1990s social scientists began to question some basic assumptions within their discipline. Chief among these was the widespread notion that sedentarism reflected normal human behavior. The common ground for those interested in mobilities and the reason the Mobilities Turn is different from other approaches is the emphasis to begin from a perspective of mobility rather than sedentary, of fluidity rather than fixity, and of variable rather than circumscribed. The sedentarist moves in a space that has been strictly appropriated, each person has their own enclosed parcel. The greater space is necessarily fragmented by these parcels enclosed by walls, fences, and boundaries and is further fragmented by the roads that connect these spaces. The nomad moves in a space that is open, smooth, and indeterminate with roads and paths that connect the open spaces rather than delimit and close the space.

The Mobilities Turn has its foundations in the work of several influential individuals whose writings pushed the boundaries of sedentarism such as Marc Augé (1995), Manuel Castells (1996), and James Clifford (1997). In addition Caren Kaplan (1996) was a catalyst for looking at mobility through a gender lens. Gendered mobility is a field of study that investigates the ways in which mobilities and gender intersect and “how mobilities enables/disables/modifies gendered practices”. In the Nepal Himalaya mobility is still largely limited by the lack of well built and maintained roads. Gendered mobility patterns are embedded in specific Hindu caste group and tribal cultural traditions and vary widely dependent on very context specific factors as well as individual family dynamics.