(Im)mobility and environment-society relations: Arguments for and against the 'mobilisation' of environmental sociology

Abstract

Physical (im)mobility is central to many interactions between human society and the biophysical world. The chapter presents arguments for and against the 'mobilisation' of environmental sociology. Drawing on Urry's (2000, 2007) 'new mobilities paradigm', it asks how such a 'mobility turn' might affect the conceptual and methodological focus of this sub-discipline, including its ability to challenge more conventional, anthropocentric approaches to sociological theory and research. It argues that a preoccupation with mobility, while beneficial in many ways, can eclipse more 'static' (or at any rate more 'a-mobile') influences on social life such as the continued impact of national political institutions on citizens' social and physical (im)mobility and the regulation of social-environmental change. Environmental sociology, a field of inquiry committed to the systematic study of environment-society relations, seems ideally positioned to address some of these mobility issues, and in turn benefit from sociological approaches that take mobility seriously. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010.