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Preparing the mobility transition
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Tribute to John Urry
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It is with great sadness that we learned of John’s untimely passing. His approach, which puts mobility at the heart of understanding contemporary societies, made him one of the pioneers in the field of mobility studies. His
analysis led him to imagine an oil-less world, an unusual exercise for a sociologist, but one that is central for the Mobile Lives Forum in its effort to prepare for the mobility transition. A prolific researcher with an extraordinary analytical capacity,
John Urry was also a kind and warm person. The Forum invites you to (re)discover some of his ideas about mobility in this newsletter.
Christophe Gay and Sylvie Landriève, co-directors of the Mobile Lives Forum
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Dictionary
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John Urry (sociologist)
John Urry (1946-2016) was a British sociologist, Professor at Lancaster University and the co-founder and Director of the Centre for Mobilities Research. He is author of seminal mobilities texts such as Sociology Beyond Societies
and Mobilities. Since the mid 1990s he has advocated a shift in the focus of sociology from the study of a-spatial social structures to the study of mobilities.
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Videos
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What is the mobility turn ?
Many writers now mobilize the “mobility turn”. As this post-disciplinary concept spreads through social sciences, it has become essential to analyze the complex organization of today’s economic, social and political spaces, argues
Professor John Urry.
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The threat hanging over our global travel
We are travelling more than ever before, but 95% of transportation depends on oil, for which global supplies have already peaked. What will happen to our mobile lives in the future, asks Professor John Urry.
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Essential Reading
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Mobilities by John Urry
Mobilities examines how transport and communication systems enable social relations at a distance and their implications for social inequality and alternative social and environmental
futures. It outlines a sociology of the future based on the study of complex mobile systems.
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Forum's Books
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Post Petroleum
Oil is fundamental to life in contemporary societies. And yet, reserves will be depleted within a few decades. What impact will this have on the way we live and move in the future?In this original book-object, John Urry imagines
what will become of ‘disconnected’ societies, by formulating four ‘post-oil’ scenarios.
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Blogs
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Capitalism and collective action in the work of John Urry (I)
British sociologist John Urry is recognized as one of the most authoritative voices arguing for a ‘mobilities turn’ in the social sciences. Books such as Sociology Beyond Societies (2000), Mobilities (2007) and Mobile Lives (2010)
are regarded as milestones in the development of the mobilities turn and widely cited in many fields. However, important aspects of his work on mobilities were prefigured earlier in discussions about collective action and the restructuring of capitalism. This
and the next entry of Café Braudel offer insights into this overlooked area of Urry’s work so as to broaden our understanding of his thinking on mobile lives and mobility futures.
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Capitalism and collective action in the work of John Urry (II)
This is the second of a two-entry series of Café Braudel on capitalism and collective action in the work of John Urry, one of the scholars who has advocated most forcefully a ‘mobilities turn’ in the social sciences. In the previous
entry I introduced one of Urry’s seminal books, The End of Organized Capitalism (1987), and noted an enduring concern with collective action in his work and, more specifically, in his mobile sociology. This entry introduces Economies of Signs and Space, another
important book published seven years later that further develops the arguments initiated in the previous book. From a mobilities perspective, considering both books together is important because they illustrate a shift in focus in the study of the social,
from a ‘cross-national’ analysis in The End of Organized Capitalism to a ‘sociology of global flows’ in Economies of Signs and Space.
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