Mobile dwelling

So, what might it mean to dwell in a mobile world? Travelling-in-dwelling and dwelling-in-travel (Clifford 1997) have become vital social science preoccupations, especially over the last two decades as work in the mobilities paradigm has explored the intricate combinations of mobility and immobility that characterise different lifeworlds (Adey 2018). Rather than antithetical, mobilities and moorings are now acknowledged as mutually dependent. However, the intensity and configuration of these processes has arguably changed during this time. In particular, we have witnessed the rise of complex new mobility and migration practices related to work and employment as well as social reproduction at a range of different scales (Cresswell, Dorow, and Roseman 2016). The intensity of these practices has been shaped by changing technologies of travel and communication, changing geopolitical forces, and changing economic circumstances. In light of such changes, this collection asks: how we might understand mobile dwelling today? Accordingly, the papers in this theme issue are interested in a range of contemporary problematics, including: emerging technologies of transport; developments in platform capitalism; the intensified pressures of urbanisation; and the challenges of underinvestment in public transport. Each paper explores mobile dwelling through a diversity of theoretical and methodological perspectives. The papers in this collection hail from a diversity of geographical contexts, including Australia, Canada, Myanmar, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A variety of disciplinary perspectives are also evidenced. By way of introduction, we summarise three cross-cutting themes that emerge from the papers in this collection, before proceeding to summarise the papers.