For some years now, a group of Portuguese social scientists launched the motto of discussing mobilities in Portugal in a broad and interdisciplinary way, following the tradition of the mobilities paradigm (Urry, Hannan and Sheller, 2006).

Since then this initiative took place regularly, guided by the rhythm of the research contexts of its promoters, but also by the surrounding circumstances at national and international level.

In 2016 we met in Braga to discuss experiences around living |in|mobility and to debate reflections and results of research carried out on (new) cultures of time, space and distance.

Two years later, we went down to the South. Thus, in Évora, in 2018, we broadened the debate on contemporary mobility, looking particularly at its (com)steps, directions and policies. The objective was to think of mobility as a producer of experiences, meanings and ways of life, but also as a result of governmental structures and decisions.

Following this bi-annual calendar, when in early 2020 we planned to organize a new event to continue this project to discuss the phenomenon and conceptual theoretical development of mobilities in Portugal, the covid 19 pandemic breaks out.

As we know, this public health emergency directly affected the mobility of people: spreading at a galloping rate, the progress of contamination was fought with very restrictive measures on travel that sparked very heated debates about the legitimacy of the options taken and the impacts and contours. sociological aspects of forced immobilities. Thus, in 2020 we did not meet physically to discuss mobility, but we produced reflection on it, precisely during the first confinement, resulting in the publication on Time and society in suspension.

Currently, in a context of normalization, when educational establishments have completely resumed face-to-face activities and, in a phased manner, reopen services, we resumed this seminar in a hybrid format that combines webminars, one of the most driven new dynamics during the pandemic, with face-to-face modalities.

We believe that face-to-face experience and mobility itself are catalysts for creativity and thinking. The third Living (in) Mobilities 2022 meeting will be organized around the mobility of things. The experience of confinement has indelibly shown us that, as much as we can increase the virtual experience, we continue to need things that circulate in physical and virtual space, that is, goods, products and ideas.

When we had to be confined, new landscapes of things imposed themselves on the space and time of circulation. When populations stopped, the mobility of things intensified, leading to new processes of transaction and displacement. Many things – such as food, medicines, clothes and utensils started to be purchased online, exponentially and transported by different delivery companies. Ecommerce and home delivery recorded record growth in times of covid.

The question we ask is_ And now? Have we changed the way we live? Have we changed our lifestyle? Is there still room for sociability around the table? Do we connect with others because of things that circulate through new processes of transaction and displacement? What relationship do these new mobilities of “things” have with new imaginaries of life, mobility and circulation? What changes have emerged in consumption habits? What changes lie ahead in the various economic sectors? These are some of the questions that we intend to reflect on in the Living|in| Mobilities 2022. The topics proposed for the organization of the sessions are the following, but proposals on other topics are accepted:

  • Mobilities, circuits and routes: Sketches, Maps, GPSs and APPs
  • Technology, cybercity and delivery
  • Speed, time, technology and transport
  • Ecommerce and process fluidization
  • Mobility of goods vs. people
  • Mobile and itinerant services
  • Mobility and(on) scale: from local to glocal
  • Mobility, virtuality, surveillance and security
  • Routines, practices and meeting places: from shopping malls to ecommerce
  • Distributors and couriers. Old professions with new contours
  • Virtual mobility, networks and technology
  • Home deliveries, unboxing and online collective effervescence
  • “Home Switch Home”: smart, sustainable and connected homes Material culture and immaterial consumption: material goods, digital consumption
  • New consumer markets
  • Prosumers? Self-production and self-consumption in a domestic space
  • The (forced?) resurgence of apartment culture and new forms of consumption (news, food, movies, series);
  • Digital world and consumption practices
  • The domestic space as an aggregating element of consumption practices

IMPORTANT DATES

23th September: abstracts submission New DATE!

30th September: Inscription deadline

30th November: Full paper deadline New DATE!

PAPERS PUBLICATION

It will be possible to publish a:

  • short paper in the platform Barómetro Social
  • full paper in national or international indexed journal (more information available soon)
Submit Abstract

 

Organizing

With the support of: