This project explored the myriad ways in which people use different combinations of transport and communication technologies to manage complex daily practices. We talked with a small group of people who live in one town but work in another in order to understand their lived experiences and their use of different technologies. We also had access to their mobile telephone records which helped us to understand their mobility and communication practices. The project contributes to the ‘mobilities turn’ in social science by proposing new concepts and methods for analysing the ways in which people draw upon a range of resources to manage everyday mobility. We distinguish between the ‘projects’ people want to achieve and the ‘passages’ they need to go through in order to do so. We also distinguish between ‘pre-travelling’ and ‘re-ordering’. The analysis builds on insights from time-geography, mobility studies and actor-network-theory to develop a conceptual vocabulary for understanding the dynamic and situated nature of travel in everyday life. The study combines qualitative and quantitative data from a study of hypermobile people in the Netherlands.
Funded by Rijkswaterstaat (2007-08)
Peter Peters, Sanneke Kloppenberg & Sally Wyatt
Related Publications
Kloppenburg, S., Peters, P. & Wyatt, S. (2007). De reiziger tussen project en passage. Een nieuwe kijk op hypermobiliteit, prepared for Adviesdienst Verkeer en Vervoer van Rijkswaterstaat, Ministerie van Verkeer en Waterstaat, 131pp.
Peters, P., Kloppenburg, S. & Wyatt, S. (2010). Co-ordinating passages. Understanding the resources needed for everyday mobility, Mobilities 5(3), 349-368.