To better connect our network and spread the debate around “third” or alternative Cultures of Mobility, we have decided to propose an online special session at RGS-IBG 2025. Please see the Call for Abstracts below and join us! The deadline for abstracts is 10 February 2025.

Call for Abstracts

Third Cultures of Mobility: Exploring and stimulating alternative mobility futures and research methodologies

Online RGS Special Session proposal, organized by Kim Carlotta von Schönfeld e Wendy Tan

For RGS-IBG, August 2025

According to David Graeber, “the ultimate truth of the world is that it is something we make and could just as easily make differently” (Graeber, 2024). (Hyper)-Mobilities and other mechanisms of globalisation, however, seem to imply that it has become increasingly difficult to perceive ways to make things differently, despite (or because of?) intensive contact among countless cultures around the globe. The question then is, how can creative and diverse alternatives for mobilities be stimulated in this context? “Third cultures” provide interesting insights: they refer to cultural interweavings that emerge when various cultures interact in significant ways. What might “Third Cultures of Mobility” look like, and how might they contribute to more or less openness to change in regards to the futures of mobilities (or immobilities)? Within the context of a polycrisis to which some contemporary mobility practices contribute to a very high extent (through CO2 emissions, as well as by other dynamics, such as lack of local engagement and superficialisation of human relations), other contemporary mobility practices provide important solutions (e.g. minimising mobility, or shaping or enacting it differently, using it to deepen both local engagement and human relations, and questioning the need for streamlined, speed-based mobility). After all, perhaps it is not only how much we move, but (also) about how we move.

Not only cultural creativity, but also questions of communication/volcabularies, and methodological creativity when studying and/or encouraging cultural diversity can be key when exploring “Third Cultures of Mobility”. Arts-based workshops and mobile interviewing have been used to trigger cultural reflection and interaction (see e.g. https://mobileworlds.online), but many other creative methods and methodologies have been emerging.

This special session aims to provide a platform for discussion of cultural diversity and diverse methodologies in mobilities research. We welcome submissions that look at:

• culturally diverse practices or planning for future mobilities
• cultural diversity in (im-)mobility planning and/or practices
• alternative methodologies for studying (im-)mobility planning and/or practices
• theoretical reflections on cultural diversity and “thinking otherwise” (preferably with an angle towards mobilities research)
• cross-cultural communication / vocabularies of mobility

If you have reason to believe your topic its sufficiently related to the call to warrant inclusion but does not stricly fit this list, do submit your abstract and clearly state how you think it is relevant.

Please submit your title, abstract (max 400 words), 3-5 keywords, and author(s’) bio(s) by February 10 by email to kimvs@hvl.no , so that we can set up the session in time for final submission on ExOrdo. Please note that we may need to ask you to take additional action later in case the session is approved (e.g. submitting your abstract formally, as linked to the session, on ExOrdo). Please see the RGS Guidance for Presenters and other information on the RGS-IBG 2025 Conference website for more information. The conference takes place from Wednesday 27 to Friday 29 August 2025. Please note that, if accepted, this session will take place fully online.

Whether the session is approved or not, we hope that your submissions may trigger collaborative work among interested authors (e.g. on a special issue and/or a webinar) beyond the RGS conference.

We look forward to receiving your abstracts!

Reference: Graeber, David. The Ultimate Hidden Truth of the World… Essays. Allen Lane, 2024.

[Featured image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash]