CFP: RGS-IBG: Caring on the Move: Exploring the Practical and Emotional Dimensions of (Vélo)mobilities of Care in Highly Motorized Cities
Francesco Zuccolo
Date: mar 11 feb 2025 alle ore 14:16
Subject: 2nd CFP: RGS-IBG: Caring on the Move: Exploring the Practical and Emotional Dimensions of (Vélo)mobilities of Care in Highly Motorized Cities
To: <GLOBAL-M...@jiscmail.ac.uk>
Dear all,
First of all, apologies for cross-posting, but we would like to make a reminder of our cfp for this year's RGS/IBG conference (University of Birmingham, UK, 27–29 August) which might be of interest for some of you.
Session title:
Caring on the Move: Exploring the Practical and Emotional Dimensions of (Vélo)mobilities of Care in Highly Motorized Cities
Convenors: Maria Lindmäe and Tauri Tuvikene (Tallinn University).
Deadline: 21st February
Session description:
In recent years, care mobilities in their different modalities –including cycling– have received an increased interest among urban scholars who have highlighted that care practices support the functioning of the labour market and that caregivers’ mobilities require more attention to guarantee the healthy functioning of cities. Developed as a counterpart to mobility for paid employment, Sánchez de Madariaga’s (2009) original definition of mobility of care refers to all the travel required to perform the unpaid work carried out by adults having responsibility for children and other non-physically autonomous individuals, as well as those activities needed for the upkeep of the home. Feminist scholars have been especially critical of neoliberal urban and transport planning ideals that have favoured the mobility of commuters that contribute to economic growth, as well as sustainable mobility transitions, while ignoring infrastructures that support unpaid care work that sustains everyday life. Expanding this perspective, researchers have highlighted the multiple challenges that caregivers who are more often (low-income) women, face with multimodal, chained trips involving heavy bags, children, or elderly companions (cf. Ravensbergen et al. 2023; Sträuli 2024). These insights have shown some modes of travel, like the use of a personal car or car-sharing to be more compatible with care mobilities, while the use of bicycles, in particular, has been deemed to be at odds with care tasks (Sersli et al. 2020).
Drawing on Bellacasa’s (2013: 42) definition of the practice of care as something that “joins together an affective state, a material vital doing, and an ethico-political obligation,” this panel calls for papers that are interested in discussing the practical and emotional aspects of care mobilities and why these matter for more inclusive mobilities and transportation planning. We especially welcome papers from diverse urban contexts, including ones that have seen rapid motorization in the past decades, such as the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. We are open to papers that discuss all modes of travel, including cars if framed in relation to care mobilities, but are particularly interested in cycling and public transportation, and the compatibility of their multimodal use for performing care tasks.
The topics include but are not limited to:
The affective dimension of care mobilities, e.g. on how care-related travel constitutes the relationship between care-givers, receivers and their everyday environment
The role of societal transformations in the changing understandings of care and the mobilities needed for supporting care tasks
Collective strategies and negotiations related to demanding or improving deficient care mobilities infrastructures (e.g. accessible public transportation, safer bike lanes)
Care mobilities from an intersectional approach, including the experiences of LGTBQIA+ communities and persons with functional diversity
Questioning the “unsuitability” of different modes of travel (including cycling, scooters and other less commonplace forms of transport) for care mobilities either due to established societal and/or gender norms of what constitutes safe and rational transportation
New methodological approaches to studying care mobilities, especially those focused on affect and on the involvement of children’s experiences
For consideration, please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to both Maria Lindmäe (maria....@tlu.ee) and Tauri Tuvikene (tauri.t...@tlu.ee) by the deadline of: Friday 21st February 2025
We would prefer the session to be live and in-person. If you are only interested in presenting virtually then please mention this in your email.
References:
Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2017). Matters of care: Speculative ethics in more than human worlds. University of Minnesota Press.
Ravensbergen, L., Fournier, J., & El-Geneidy, A. (2023). Exploratory Analysis of Mobility of Care in Montreal, Canada. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2677(1), 1499-1509. https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981221105070
Sánchez de Madariaga, I. (2009). Vivienda, movilidad y urbanismo para la igualdad en la diversidad: Ciudades, género y dependencia. Ciudad y Territorio. Estudios Territoriales, XLI(161-162), 581-597. https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/cytet/article/view/75953
Sersli, S., Gislason, M., Scott, N., & Winters, M. (2020). Riding alone and together: Is mobility of care at odds with mothers’ bicycling? Journal of Transport Geography, 83, 102645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.