Travelling the Journey: Understanding Mobility Trajectories by Recreating Research Paths

Abstract

One of the key ideas in mobility research, which differentiates itself from most urban and transport research, is the understanding of mobility practices and the way they are experienced along trajectories. For this, Ingold’s (1993) idea of ‘path’ becomes useful as it allows for understanding individual and collective travel trajectories as indivisible and lingering, that is without a definite horizon of where they actually begin or end. It follows, therefore, that travel experiences often linger in a person’s body, and this has implications for how the experience takes place. However, understanding this experience involves methodological approaches and devices to capture, analyse and represent such experiences and requires adopting and adapting methods as journeys take place and as research processes evolve.