Circulations : a brief introduction

The circulation of people, things, images, money, media and information represents one of the most important areas of inquiry in the social sciences. From examinations of transnationalism and cosmopolitanism to recent theories of mobility, attention to circulation has reinvigorated debates on the many forms of movement that accompany migration. The focus on circulation as a particular form of mobility enables scholars of migration and mobility to understand not only different kinds of movement but the value accorded to the multiple forms of circulation that correspond with the movement of people within and across cities, national and transnational borders, including digital realms. As bodies, objects, money and other forms move through space and time, they create and enter into different regimes of value that shape the meaning and consequences of different mobilities. Moreover, the focus on circulation calls for a critical reflection of categories that we use to capture, categorize and order the existing diversity in movement and stasis, prompting scholars to identify alternative approaches to address motion and its (extra) ordinary effects on contemporary collective life.