Mobile Worlds (GEOG30028)

The scale of contemporary travel is staggering, involving tourists, business people, refugees, passengers, commuters, students, backpackers, migrants, stowaways, pirates, terrorists—and many more. Travel has often been seen as devoid of economic, political and socio-cultural significance. But issues of movement—too much or too little; too fast or too slow; or the wrong sort at the wrong time—are at the heart of many lives, organisations and governments. From airport expansion controversies to design responses to global warming; and from the spectre of driverless cars to the plight of homeless people, issues of ‘mobility’ are centre stage.

Through this subject we will be getting to grips with how and why things move. What are the meanings attached to these movements? How fast do things move? What routes do these movements take? How and when do things stop? All of these questions generate new ways of thinking about the emergence, distribution, and patterning of power in our contemporary globalising world. This subject will be taught intensively through a series of workshops and practicals, involving fieldwork in different areas of Melbourne.