mCenter Director Mimi Sheller discusses her forthcoming book Aluminum Dreams: Lightness, Speed, Modernity (MIT Press, 2014)
For more information please contact mimi.sheller@drexel.edu
* please note that the European pronunciation of “aluminium” has been used throughout for a global audience
Posted in Research
Tagged Aluminum, Caribbean, Sustainability, Technology, Tourism, Transport
6:30-7:30pm, MACALISTER 2020 BOARD ROOM
Costa Concordia Salvage
A talk by Giuseppina Pellegrino (President of STS Italia, and Asst. Professor, Sociology of Culture & Communication, University of Calabria, Italy
This talk aims to describe and identify potential crossroads between STS and Mobilities as two contiguous fields. As they share an interdisciplinary and even transdisciplinary status, their hybridization can provide fertile materials of reflection from both a theoretical and an empirical viewpoint.
In order to depict similarities and differences between STS and Mobility Studies, the case of the cruise ship ‘Costa Concordia’ partial sinking in January 2012 off the Giglio island in Italy will be proposed as ‘exemplary story’ to summarize the key-concepts and criticalities of STS-based Mobilities.
Dr. Pelligrino will also be discussing the state of Science and Technology Studies in Italy and the formation of STS Italia:
THURSDAY, APRIL 4
12-1 P.M.
HAGERTY LIBRARY
STEIN CONFERENCE ROOM 302
mimi.sheller@drexel.edu
This conference aims at discussing new directions in mobilities research, showcasing the state of the art in the field, and providing a unique opportunity to create lasting links among researchers, especially in the north and the south of Europe. The language of this event will be English but the range of papers presented will be a reflection of the diversity of concerns, approaches and methodologies informing mobilities research in Europe and beyond.
Keynote speakers
Malene Freudendal-Pedersen (Roskilde, Cosmobilities Network)
Sven Kesselring (MoRE, Munich/Aalborg, Cosmobilities Network)
Giuseppina Pellegrino (University of Calabria) and Ugo Rossi (University of Turin)
Mimi Sheller (Drexel, Philadelphia, Pan American Mobilities Network)
Organizers
Professor Giuliana Mandich (Cagliari University)
Dr Javier Caletrío (CeMoRe, Visiting Fellow University of Cagliari)
Dr Ugo Rossi (Cagliari University)
For more information please see:
A Mediterranean city par excellence, Alexandria will host on the 4th and 5th of February 2011 the first symposium “exploring mobility around the Mediterranean”, organized by the Arab Education Forum – Safar Fund and Roberto Cimetta Fund in cooperation with The International Association for Creation and Training (I-act) and hosted by the 8th edition of the Creative Forum for independent theatre groups (Europe- Mediterranean). This Symposium, which is a cornerstone in the Istikshaf project, aims to expand on and develop a renewed understanding of contemporary mobility by bringing together people able to think mobility in its widest sense. With a special focus on artistic mobility, this Symposium is an attempt to respond to the evident shortage in literature on mobility as a tool for learning, dialogue, and artisticexchange and as a new-old paradigm around the Mediterranean basin.
Over the period of two days, more than 35 academics, specialists and practitioners from 18 Arab and European countries: Jordan, Syria, Tunisia, Palestine, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, France, Turkey, Denmark, Austria, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Germany, The Netherlands, The Gulf, and Great Britain, will shed light on issues ranging from current research on mobility, challenges to artistic mobility, travel literature, artists’ experiences, policies on mobility, and the role of cities in promoting artistic mobility. Key mobility operators from the Mediterranean region will also be present at the Symposium to share their perspectives and learn from other experiences.
This Symposium is supported by the Anna Lindh Foundation, the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, in addition to private donations.
Istikshaf program is a cooperation initiative led by The Arab Education Forum-Safar Fund and The Roberto Cimetta Fund, in cooperation with The Arab Theatre Training Center, Al Balad Theater, Studio EmadEddin, I-act, and Dramatiska Institutet (Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts), which aims to develop a platform for artistic mobility around the Mediterranean through a mapping of mobility operators; supporting research and knowledge building around this topic; mobilization of mobility alumni; and providing a forum for mobility operators to exchange experiences and share knowledge and resources.
Contact: Angie Cotte, Secrétaire Générale, Fonds Roberto Cimetta:
tél : 00 33 1 45 26 33 74 email : info@cimettafund.org
For more information, you can visit the following website:
Artwork by Dan Schimmel, 2009
________________________________________________
In the early 21st century people, images, information, goods and even our bodies are moving differently than they did in the past, often in more dynamic, complex and trackable ways than ever before. Technological, social and cultural developments in transportation, border control, mobile communication, ‘intelligent’ infrastructure, surveillance and global positioning are rapidly changing the conditions of possibility for all forms of mobility and accessibility. While for some this means moving ever faster, farther and more frequently, for others it may bring turbulence, friction, slower speeds, and limited access. Furthermore, in the near future the carbon-based mobilities of the 20th century will likely be replaced by alternative transport systems and fuels, and perhaps less mobile societies.
At the same time, new mobile social media, locative social networks, and digital arts are handling movement and connectivity in new ways, creating new kinds of hybrid public spaces. And, most importantly, new alternative cultures of mobility are also emerging, as people enact, perform, and combine mobility and stillness in new ways. Innovative ways of dwelling, communicating, and moving (as well as policing, surveilling, and excluding) are already emerging in relation not only to the challenges of environmental pressures, fuel security, and economic turbulence, but also to novel possibilities brought about through creative innovation. This is a time of mobility challenges that will demand all kinds of different solutions, new thinking, experimentation and living differently.
In order to grasp these trends, ‘mobility’ has become a keyword in the social sciences, delineating a new domain of concepts, approaches, and methodologies that seek to better understand the character and quality of mobilities and immobilities, their inter-relation, and their contested futures. This conference seeks to advance the field of mobilities research, bringing together both established and new researchers from across the Americas and Europe to present up-to-date research on a wide range of transdisciplinary topics that address some of the most compelling issues that we face in the world today.
How can we break away from routinized practices that reproduce existing systems of transportation, urban planning, and dwelling? How can the search for new openings, possibilities, or ways of leading life propel us towards alternative mobility futures? How can transdiciplinary exchanges across the arts, social science and technology help us generate new approaches to mobilities in motion?
We invite papers that address these themes or related topics:
Disciplines represented at the conference may include (but are not exclusive to): Anthropology, Architecture and Design, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Communication, Criminology, Cultural Studies, Geography, Media and Visual Arts, Politics and International Relations, Public Policy, Sociology, Theater and Performance Studies, Tourism Research, Transport Research, and Urban Studies.
Conference registration: There will be a registration fee of $225 (discounted to $150 for students, and for those coming from the Latin American or Caribbean countries), which will include a conference dinner, coffee breaks, lunch, and snacks during the conference, as well as a special reception. Discounted rates on local hotel bookings will be available to conference participants.
Organizing Committee:
Malene Freudendal-Pedersen Jennie Germann-MolzWe look forward to receiving your abstracts and welcoming you in Philadelphia.
Deadline for abstracts: 30 October 2010
Length: 800 words (including references)
Notification of acceptance: 1 December 2010
Registration deadline: 30 January 2011
Conference Dates: 21-23 March 2011
Please send your abstract to: mimi.sheller@drexel.edu
A publication based on the conference is planned for 2012. Best papers will be selected and the authors will be invited to submit a full paper by September 2011.
Conference location: Behrakis Grand Hall and University Conference Center, Macalister Hall, Drexel University 33rd & Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PAFor further information please contact:
Prof. Mimi Sheller Professor of Sociology Director, Center for Mobilities Research and Policy Department of Culture and Communication Drexel University 3141 Chestnut St. Philadelphia, PA 19104-2875 USA Tel. 215-571-3652 Fax. 215-895-1333 Email: mimi.sheller@drexel.edu http://www.drexel.edu/coas/culturecomm/ccdept/faculty/sheller.asp http://mcenterdrexel.wordpress.com/ http://twitter.com/mCenterDrexelInformation on the Pan American Mobilities Network:
http://researcher.royalroads.ca/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=23907
Information on the Cosmobilities Network: http://www.cosmobilities.net/
Posted in Conference
Tagged Art, Call for papers, Design, Mobilities Theory, Tourism, Transport, Urbanism
Haitian bloggers have been circulating this video of a “Master Plan” for the development of Haiti’s 287 sq mile island of La Gonave as an “international island operated as a business”. It is a remarkable example of the literal carving up of a prostrate country for the development of oil refineries, monocrop plantations, commercial water privatization, cruise ship ports, coast-to-coast all-inclusive resorts, golf courses and luxury villas. There will be small reserves left for the “natives” to live in faux-historic villages where they can be on view in “cultural performances” when not serving as chambermaids and plantation workers. Access will be via first a private executive airport and then by its own international airport, bypassing Haitian national authorities to give developers and tourists easy access to their own little “island paradise”. This loss of sovereignty and citizenship is typical of resort development throughout much of the Caribbean, including current massive developments along the coasts of nearby Jamaica, as seen in our recent screening of Esther Figueroa’s film Jamaica for Sale. But this plan is especially stunning in its comprehensive nature, bald land grab, environmental destruction, and cynical combination of industry, tourism, and property development under the green-washed guise of “renewable energy”. In the context of Haiti’s huge need for post-earthquake reconstruction, the developer “Global Renewable Energy” claims to be bringing jobs to the desperate people of Haiti, even though most jobs in such developments are usually filled by foreign contracted workers. It is not clear how far this plan has progressed with the Government of Haiti, but everything should be done to stop it now.
Jamaica for Sale: A Documentary About Tourism and Unsustainable Development
Produced & Directed by Esther Figueroa
THURSDAY, MAY 6th, 2010
6-8:30 pm
Ruth Auditorium, Nesbitt Hall (33rd & Market St.), Drexel University
Jamaica for Sale (84mins) is a powerful documentary about the economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism and unsustainable development in Jamaica. The film will be followed by a discussion with Producer/Director Esther Figueroa and Prof. Mimi Sheller
Winner of the Audience Award at the Africa World Documentary Film Festival, the Bronze Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival, and the Rising Star Award at the Canada Film Festival
Though the Caribbean receives about five percent of the global tourist trade, it is the region most economically dependent on tourism. Heavily promoted since 1891 as the way to modernization and prosperity, tourism has tragically failed in its promises, as Jamaica is one of the most indebted countries in the world and the third poorest country in the Caribbean. Lively, hard hitting, with powerful voices, arresting visuals and iconic music, Jamaica For Sale documents the environmental, economic, social and cultural impacts of unsustainable tourism development. Filled with wit and penetrating observations from the street wise to highly acclaimed academics, Jamaica For Sale engages with a cross section of Jamaicans: workers, small hoteliers, fishermen, community members, and environmentalists. As Jamaica is irreversibly transformed by massive hotel and luxury condominium development, Jamaica For Sale both documents this transformation and is trying to turn the tide. It is a cautionary tale not just for Jamaica, but all islands in the Caribbean, and all places around the world dependent on tourism or participating in unsustainable development practices.
Hosted by the Center for Mobilities Research & Policy, Africana Studies and Women’s Studies, this event is free and open to the public.
For more information please contact: Mimi Sheller at mimi.sheller@drexel.edu
Produced & Directed by Esther Figueroa
THURSDAY, MAY 6th, 2010
6-8:30 pm
Ruth Auditorium, Nesbitt Hall (33rd & Market St.), Drexel University
Jamaica for Sale (84mins) is a powerful documentary about the economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism and unsustainable development in Jamaica. The film will be followed by a discussion with Producer/Director Esther Figueroa and Prof. Mimi Sheller
Winner of the Audience Award at the Africa World Documentary Film Festival, the Bronze Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival, and the Rising Star Award at the Canada Film Festival
Though the Caribbean receives about five percent of the global tourist trade, it is the region most economically dependent on tourism. Heavily promoted since 1891 as the way to modernization and prosperity, tourism has tragically failed in its promises, as Jamaica is one of the most indebted countries in the world and the third poorest country in the Caribbean. Lively, hard hitting, with powerful voices, arresting visuals and iconic music, Jamaica For Sale documents the environmental, economic, social and cultural impacts of unsustainable tourism development. Filled with wit and penetrating observations from the street wise to highly acclaimed academics, Jamaica For Sale engages with a cross section of Jamaicans: workers, small hoteliers, fishermen, community members, and environmentalists. As Jamaica is irreversibly transformed by massive hotel and luxury condominium development, Jamaica For Sale both documents this transformation and is trying to turn the tide. It is a cautionary tale not just for Jamaica, but all islands in the Caribbean, and all places around the world dependent on tourism or participating in unsustainable development practices.
Hosted by the Center for Mobilities Research & Policy, Africana Studies and Women’s Studies, this event is free and open to the public.
For more information please contact: Mimi Sheller at mimi.sheller@drexel.edu
Mobile City: Singapore
This new issue contains the following Original Articles
Introduction: Mobile City Singapore, Pages 167 – 175
Authors: Natalie Oswin; Brenda S. A. Yeoh
Capital and the Transfiguring Monumentality of Raffles Hotel, Pages 177 – 195
Author: Daniel P. S. Goh
Dangerous Migrants and the Informal Mobile City of Postwar Singapore, Pages 197 – 218
Author: Loh Kah Seng
Transnational Domestic Workers and the Negotiation of Mobility and Work Practices in Singapore’s Home-Spaces, Pages 219 – 236
Authors: Brenda S. A. Yeoh; Shirlena Huang
Mobile City and the Coromandel Coast: Tamil Journeys to Singapore, 1920-1960, Pages 237 – 255
Author: Sunil S. Amrith
Buddha-izing a Global City-State: Transnational Religious Mobilities, Spiritual Marketplace, and Thai Migrant Monks in Singapore, Pages 257 -275
Author: Pattana Kitiarsa
Interrogating Multiculturalism and Cosmopolitanism in the City-State: Some Recent Singapore Fiction in English, Pages 277 – 290
Author: Philip Holden
Cultures of Movement
Open to students, scholars, and professionals, the conference is meant to build new ties amongst all those interested in the theoretical or applied study of mobilities. The study of mobilities is a young and constantly evolving interdisciplinary field. The concept of “mobility” refers to the social, political, historical, cultural, economic, geographic, communicative, and material dimensions of movement. Students and scholars of mobilities focus their attention on the intersecting movements of bodies, objects, capital, and signs across time-space, paying attention as well as to the way relations between mobility and immobility constitute new networks and patterns of social life. The multiple forms of mobility, or mobilities, are often taken to include—amongst others—subjects such as: transportation; travel and tourism; migration; transnational flows of people, objects, information, and capital; mobile communications; and social networks and meetings. While the conference is open to all themes pertinent to the study of mobilities from a social and cultural perspective—irrespective of the geographical site of empirical or theoretical attention—the main focus of the conference will be on the experience, practice, social organization, and cultural significance of forms of mobility in North, Central, and South America.
Whereas in Europe the new mobilities paradigm has taken a strong hold in academic units, professional research networks, and recognized publication outlets, the study of mobilities is still in its infancy in the Americas. In contrast, mobility is very much part of the core of the social imaginary, geo-politics, and cultural life of the Americas. Indeed, to be “on the move” is amongst the most quintessential characteristics of what it means to be a citizen of the Americas. Furthermore, the Americas are home to many, distinct mobile cultures and practices: from indigenous cultures rooted in traditional meanings of home to the historical institutionalization of colonial and postcolonial trade routes and forced relocations, from controversial experiments in free transnational trade, to the politics and experience of migration and Diaspora, from the widespread diffusion of portable communication technologies, to the mobilization of surveillance systems, and from the leisure mobilities of tourism, to the social and cultural significance of transportation and movement in daily life.
With keynote addresses by: Jim Conley, Caren Kaplan, Mimi Sheller, Rob Shields
The conference will be organized by Royal Roads University and is supported by the Pan-American Mobility Network. For more information on the organizers see here. To contact the organization committee please email Prof. Phillip Vannini at phillip.vannini@royalroads.ca
Posted in Conference, Events
Tagged Events, Mobilities Theory, Technology, Tourism
