Cultures of Mobility in Europe

In addition to basic empirical research on specific mobile milieux and groups, COME contributes on a phenomenological and conceptual level to the anaylsis of mobile life-worlds and community/network formation under mobile circumstances. While the scholarship on highly mobile groups has tended to focus on rather recent, and rather privileged professional milieus, such as the so-called 'creative-class', IT specialists, or managers, COME focuses on milieux that have engaged in highly mobile ways of life and work, long before the emergence of long-distance air travel and the internet. This allows not only for a stronger integration of a historical perspective but also for a critical analysis of social differentiations and power relations. Trying to think „society through a mobilities lens“ (J. Urry), the COME projects shed light onto the complex structural challenges that arise for societies around the world, and particularly in the EU, from the double-bind of increasing mobility and transnational interconnectedness one the one side, and the continued cohesions of the nation state and sedentary majority populations on the other.

The COME projects focus on recent mobile phenomena. They are analyzed in the context of long-term historical developments and in regard to historical images and ideological constructions of mobility and sedentarism. The geo-political focus is on Europe, with particular attention to the EU's on-going inner consolidation, enlargement and border making processes.

TRAVELLING ARTISTS (Anna Lipphardt)

The interdisciplinary project explores the interdependencies of mobility, the living conditions of artists, artistic practises, professional networks and the art market across various artistic disciplines. Based on a combination of qualitative and quantiative data, the project seeks to illuminate mobility-related challenges and opportunities emerging artists face, and contributes on the empirical level to the growing research on mobility of highly-qualified professionals, to art research and to cultural economics.

BETWEEN GLOBAL DESIRE AND LOCAL ANGST: THE CIRCUS IN GERMANY (Anna Lipphardt)

While the circus nowadays is generally perceived as a marginal cultural phenomenon, it was one of the most popular venues of mass-entertainment until World War II in Germany. Today Germany is the country with the most circus companies and projects (ca. 350) in Europe. The project focuses on the development of the circus as a mobile art form and cultural institution, for which globalization and border crossings played a central role on and off stage. A second part of the project explores historical and contemporary experiences of circus people as well as the shifting zones of close encounter with the local population and public administration.

IL/LEGALIZING MOBILITY (Inga Schwarz)
Irregular migration requires extensive mobility practices, including reference points within countries of origin, transit countries and potential recipient countries. The project concentrates on these hypermobile practices of irregular migrants in Europe and their dependency on legal categorizations of migration. The different international and national legal spaces, as well as the differing normative orders of social networks that migrants pass through, will be taken into consideration. In addition to filling the gap of empirical work on irregular migration, the project aims to intersect mobility studies and legal anthropology.

VIVRE DANS UNE ROULOTTE: MOBILE LIFEWORLDS OF ALTERNATIVE TRAVELLERS IN GERMANY AND FRANCE (Matthias Möller)

Alternative trailer communes formulated a counter concept to the hegemonial patterns of housing and living in the decade of late fordism. Travellers close to the new social movements perform a self-choosen lifestyle with immaginations lead by anti-bourgeois demarcation. A research in germany and france investigates transnational aspects of social movement as well as the practises of everyday-life, labour-aspects and biography

"NOMADIC BUSKERS"? MOBILITY PRACTICES OF TODAYS STREET PERFORMERS (Jeanne Labigne)

The ethnographically oriented in depth case study on street performers in Europe, aims to explore structural, discursive and subjective aspects of contemporary forms of buskers’ mobile everyday living and working. Analyzing the embodiment and expression of movement on different levels and thus aiming to highlight “embodied (im)mobilities”, this research project is situated at the interface between Mobility Studies, Anthropology and Sociology of the Body.

CONTEMPORARY TRENDS OF ROMA MOBILITY IN, FROM AND OUT OF EUROPE (Esteban Acuna)

Wandering is one of the core elements of the set of representations that comprise „the Gypsy“ or „gypsiness“. Roma and other so-called groups have had to deal with (im)mobility issues since the adveniment of state formation, being direct witnesses and protagonists of (im)mobility patterns. Through a multi-local ethnographic approach, this project focuses on the networks, relations, experiences and practices established by these populations between Europe and the American continent, in the context of present day „globalization“ and trans-national enterprises.

Agenda and working modes

During the semester, COME members and other researchers from the University engaged in Mobility Studies, meet every other week for a reading group. We discuss important readings on central theoretical and conceptual issues and methodological approaches. If you are interested to join the reading group, please contact Esteban Acuna. Twice a year, COME organizes an advanced methodology workshop on qualitiative approaches and mobile research technologies that is open to other members of the university. Once a year, COME hosts an interdisciplinary symposium or conference. The first will take place in 2013 and will address ethical issues in Mobility and Migration Studies. Check out our website for CFPs and events.