Uneven Mobility Futures: A Foucauldian Approach

Abstract

This assessment of past and future directions in mobility research calls for a Foucauldian approach to better understand the apparatus of uneven mobility illustrated via three examples: tourism mobilities and racialized space, geo-ecologies of elite secession, and disease mobilities and quarantine. Building upon an ‘archaeological’ and ‘geneaological’ study of territory, communication, and speed, this essay argues for both a deeper historicizing of mobility research in terms of colonial histories, political ecologies, and biopolitics, as well as a deeper excavation of the material resource bases of mobility in extractive industries, military power, and biomobilities of racial formation. Sovereign control over mobility, individual ‘disciplined mobility’ and counter-mobilities, and the surveillance, securitization, and production of knowledge about mobilities each emerge as fundamental elements for the future history of uneven mobilities.