Mobility Infrastructure

In facilitating and constraining the movements of people, things, information, and energy, overlapping sociotechnical systems—such as transport and communication networks, the logistics industry, and governmental regulations—constitute a “mobility infrastructure”. Mobility, in turn, functions as an infrastructure for other social activities. The mobility of traders is the basis for the development of marketplaces, for example. And the existence of exit routes is critical for managing conflicts—from domestic violence to ethnic strife. As such, mobility infrastructure forms a central nexus between mobilities and socioeconomic changes.

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The business of welcoming migrants

Research reveals that local people working to welcome migrants to their city and to Germany find that the local “arrival infrastructure” is part of the humanitarian sector of a globe-spanning migration industry. Grants fund low wage temporary employment and the supervision of volunteer labour, while funding is channelled to national and transnational service-providing corporations. Migrants become items of inventory, a form of commodity used to secure further funding. The devolution of state services to the migration industry channels charity funds into private forms of capital accumulation and rule-making, which stand outside of democratic citizen control.
Nina Glick Schiller, Julia Wenger, Johann-Christian Niebuhr, Sonja Haase, Anna Francesca Kern, and Sabine Blechschmidt
Published online 4 October 2023

Vlogger - The migration broker as a moral category

The entry shows how migration brokers in Poland construct employment brokerage in moral categories, and how these blurred boundaries manifest in their narratives. In looking at the case of Tina, a Filipino influencer and non-obvious employment broker in Poland, it reveals the ambiguity in brokers’ roles, intentions, and morality, and how these relate to formal and informal practices.
Olga Wanicka
Published online 24 February 2023

A history of bicycle mobility in urban China: Shared bikes, technology, and infrastructure (Part 2 of 2)

With the introduction of growth-oriented urban development in the 1990s, cycling infrastructure in China’s cities became increasingly marginalised. But the new bicycle-sharing schemes, funded by huge injections of venture capital and emboldened by technology, promised to return the bicycle to the city. Dockless bicycles would bring all the benefits of cycling without the hassle of owning and maintaining a bike. This entry shows how these promises have not materialised and concludes that, in low-cycling contexts, shared bikes may not be as environmentally friendly or healthy as one might expect.
Jun Zhang
Published online 7 July 2022

Why do some taxi drivers in China turn down e-hailing?

Although e-hailing, also known as ridesharing, promises higher incomes, many taxi drivers in the Chinese city of Xi’an are not switching their jobs. The spatiotemporal arrangement of conventional taxi work enables drivers to build and maintain work-based communities, whereas the top-down algorithmic arrangement of e-hailing impedes community building. The piece argues that these community networks are so treasured by many taxi drivers in Xi’an – most of whom are former state-owned enterprise workers or rural migrants –, that they continue to drive traditional cabs despite the lower income.
Jack Linzhou Xing
Published online 17 June 2022

A history of bicycle mobility in urban China: infrastructure, economy, and urban planning (Part 1 of 2)

China has transformed itself from a kingdom of bicycles to a country of cars. From the 1970s to the mid-1990s, bicycle-centric mobility was embedded in “work unit urbanism” with home, work, school and other facilities nearby one another. Since the late 1990s, however, urban infrastructure has focused on accommodating automobiles while the city, and the distances residents travel, has grown. In the process, bicycle travel has gone from a daily necessity to a marker of status in an increasingly stratified society.
Jun Zhang
Published online 4 May 2022

Resource frontiers in Guatemalan conservation

Biodiversity conservation is an increased part of migration governance regimes around the world. This entry uses the framework of ‘resource frontiers’ to examine American-funded conservation programmes for refugees in Guatemala. It considers the entanglement of humans and more-than-humans as resources in the production of political barriers.
Julia C. Morris
Published online 8 April 2022

Logistical power

“Logistical power” is a government’s exertion of dominance over private actors by coordinating the circulation of people, goods, and information. Its immediate sources include states’ logistical provision and logistical intervention. Logistical power extends both the “infrastructural power” (Michael Mann 1984) and political-juridical power of modern states.
Biao Xiang
Published online 10 February 2022

Short circuit: on the transnational circulation of stolen wealth

This entry proposes the notion of the ‘short circuit’ to grasp the transnational circulation of stolen contemporary objects of wealth. With a focus on electronics theft in South Africa, short circuits are viewed as violent levelling mechanisms between regions of plenty and scarcity, which bypass social, economic, and logistical conventions to instantly satisfy desires for material wealth.
Brandaan Huigen
Published online 9 November 2021

Domestic work during COVID-19: Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand

Lockdown restrictions have increased the share of reproductive labour in domestic space, with disproportionate impacts for women. This entry examines that phenomenon in the context of Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand.
Vidya Ramachandran
Published online 15 July 2021

Getting married during a pandemic: Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand

Marrying during the pandemic has necessitated various adaptations of custom.
Vidya Ramachandran
Published online 10 June 2021

Urban-rural mobility during COVID-19: the growth of ‘cottagecore’ in Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand

In Australia, COVID-19’s impacts on everyday urban life may have provoked interest in urban-rural migration, raising important questions about (im)mobility and environmental justice in the region as a whole.
Vidya Ramachandran
Published online 10 June 2021

Domestic violence in Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand during the COVID-19 pandemic

Lockdown and social distancing restrictions have impacted women’s experiences of domestic violence, and complicated their access to frontline support services. The entry examines this phenomenon in the context of Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand.
Vidya Ramachandran
Published online 2 June 2021

'Femicide does not recognize viruses': violence against women increases in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic

The measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 have led to an increase in violence against women in Turkey, as victims and perpetrators are locked down together and access to protection grows more difficult. Furthermore, those convicted of violence against women have been released from prisons and sent back to their homes.
Esra Demirkol
Published online 30 April 2021

Childcare and mothers’ mobility in the United States during COVID-19

The closure of childcare facilities and schools has resulted in the immobilization of many children in the home. As a result, some mothers are likely to experience reduced mobility as a result of the pandemic. This entry explores which mothers are most likely to experience this immobility.
Angela Remus
Published online 27 April 2021

Immobility sparks mobility: Black Lives Matter protests in the United States

Pandemic-related immobilities have provided fertile ground for protest mobility, offering one explanation for the sustained protests following the death of George Floyd in May 2020.
Angela Remus
Published online 15 March 2021