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Geographies of Mobility

My recent research focuses on mobility. I have investigated the ways in which mobility is given meaning and how those meanings are mobilised in relations of power. This investigation has two forms. 1) A book on The Tramp in America (Reaktion Books, 2001) which involves a sustained look at how the mobility of tramps in the United States between 1870 and 1940 was constructed by a number of forms of knowledge ranging from formal sociology , through social reform to comedy and photography. The book explores five ways in which the tramp was made up as a threatening and marginal character through a focus on the tramp's mobility. 2) The second strand of research into mobility is a more general attempt to theorise mobility as social motion (as motion+meaning+power). This has been published in the book On the Move: Mobility in the Modern Western World (Routledge, 2006). The development of a theoretical approach to mobility in the book is based around a series of case studies ranging from the scale of the body (in the workplace or the dancehall for instance), through various forms of migration to the international airport. In each, case I argue, mobility is seen as being both central to what it is to be a modern human being and, simultaneously, a potential source of threat and disorder. Research on mobility is an on-going project and I am currently involved in co-editing two books on the subject.

Geographies of Place

I have been writing about place as long as I have been a geographer. I am interested in the ways in which place plays an active role in the constitution of culture and society. Early work focused on the notion of people, things and actions having appropriate places. Logically other people, things and actions are labeled out of place and perceived as a transgression of “normality”. Since then I have continues to think about and write about place. Some of my ideas are summarized in the book Place: A Short Introduction (Blackwell, 2004). Most recently I have begun to explore in more detail a particular place, Maxwell Street Market in Chicago, in an effort to find new ways of writing about and exploring a place as it has changed over 130 years. Currently I am exploring the role of excess and waste in this space. I am particularly fascinated by the role of non human objects in the constitution of this place as a space of excess. This research is on-going.

Grid Geographies

The grid is often presented as a pattern which signifies an abstract conception of space. It is, if you like, the opposite of place. Despite this the grid pattern has a fascinating cultural history and it has been anything but devoid of meaning. I am in the early stages of exploring the multiple histories of the grid from ancient China to New York City - from urban planning to documentary photography, from modern art to post-modern architecture.