In our 2-day workshop – Grounding (Im)mobilities – Embodiment, Ephemera, Ecologies – at the ICS in Lisbon this past September, more than 30 anthropologists gathered to
problematise the (im)material dimensions of contemporary mobility with a particular emphasis on exploring embodiments, ephemera and ecologies […] We envision sketching a more comprehensive, plural, and composite vision of mobility, and asking what kinds of collaborations and connections can emerge from approaching (im)materialities in mobilities as a possible unifying pattern of analysis.
The program incorporated papers that ranged across multiple forms of mobility – true to the title, encompassing mobilities and immobilities, across ranges of materialities and immaterialities, like roads, virtual communication, security regimes and long-distance moralities.
At the conclusion of the program, invited discussant Samuli Schielke summarized his impressions of the collective work. Speaking from an ‘outsider’ perspective, as an anthropologist of religion whose work has been moving towards mobility, Samuli neatly analyses the new contributions research in mobility can make across the discipline. The recording of his commentary is available here:
Photo by Thomas Depenbusch (flickr, CC BY 2.0)
