Mobility, Immobility and the City: Theoretical Orientations and Concepts

This chapter sheds light on the key premises of the New Mobilities Paradigm and positions the volume within the context of the recent humanities turn taking place in mobility studies. After a comprehensive theoretical overview, the second section offers a glossary selected by the editors of this volume, with six keywords that recur throughout the different chapters: Border-crossing, Encounters, Everyday mobilities, Flânerie, Passangering and Stasis. These conceptual nodes provide interconnected paths between the chapters and explain the link to the ongoing debate on the role of narratives and art forms in the urban systems of mobility. The final section expands on the book structure, divided into three parts (I. Itinerant Subjects, II. Modes of Transport and Places of Transit, and III. Urban Liminalities), each of which engages with both literary narratives, and visual and performative art forms.