From 29 August to 2 September 2023, Mobile Worlds was present at the RGS-IBG Conference in London. This is a yearly conference of the “Royal Geographical Society”, which brings together a wonderful array of researchers, in fact often quite a bit beyond “geography” per se. More information about the conference itself can be found on its website, but below we briefly outline how Mobile Worlds was involved.

Kim presented her first ideas on the relationship between third cultures, out-of-the-box thinking, and sustainable mobility to a very interested and kind audience in a session on Migration and Mobility. The title of the talk was: “Relating outward and inward mobilities – the diverse origins of third cultures and their potential for instigating change.” The potential of looking for cultural diversity within ourselves and local societies was explored here – with the idea that even if not all trips can or should be substituted in this way, it might be interesting to consider that some of the (distant) trips we value because of the opportunity they give us for contact with other cultures could perhaps be found much ‘closer to home’. It is a first exploration of the concept of third cultures in this sense. More research via the Mobile Worlds project will further explore this and other hypotheses further!

Relevant resources used:

Caset, F., Boussauw, K., & Storme, T. (2018). Meet & fly: Sustainable transport academics and the elephant in the room. Journal of Transport Geography, 70, 64–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2018.05.020

Graeber, D., & Wengrow, D. (2021). The dawn of everything: A new history of humanity. Penguin Random House UK.

Nienaber, B., Holzapfel-Mantin, N., & Budach, G. (2023). “Crossing borders, connecting cultures”: An introduction to the special issue. Comparative Migration Studies, 11(1), 7, s40878-023-00333–00334. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-023-00333-4

Pollock, D. C., Van Reken, R. E., & Pollock, M. V. (2017). Third culture kids: Growing up among worlds (Third edition). Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

von Schönfeld, K. C., & Ferreira, A. (2022). Mobility values in a finite world: Pathways beyond austerianism? Applied Mobilities, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2022.2087135

Weintrobe, S. (2020). Moral injury, the culture of uncare and the climate bubble. Journal of Social Work Practice, 34(4), 351–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2020.1844167