Dwelling in Mobile Times : Places, Practices and Contestations

In an era of increasing mobilities, places of residence are still vital. Unlike commuting, migrating or travelling, dwelling usually evokes – at least in modern Western thought – the idea of an immobile, private place to rest. This book explores the places, spaces and practices of dwelling in mobile times, and considers dwelling under the umbrella of broader transformations in society. The manifestations of these transformations are carved out on the level of everyday practices and experiences.

Bringing together eight case studies from Europe, the USA and Asia on subjects such as gentrification, homelessness and displaced persons, multi-local and diasporic lifeworlds, professional elites, and tourism, the book explores various and complex entanglements of mobilities and dwelling in detail. In doing so, the contributors critically analyse who may be, or has to be, mobile under which circumstances at present. This book thus demonstrates that mobility is more than movement between localities, and that to dwell is more than to be at a locality. Instead, mobilities and dwelling are both shaped and challenged by strong but shifting power relations and are thus deeply contested. This book was originally published as a special issue of Cultural Studies.

Sybille Frank, Prof Dr phil., is Professor for Urban Sociology and the Sociology of Space at the Department of Sociology, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. She has held positions as guest professor at the Goethe University Frankfurt, as junior professor at the Technische Universität Berlin, as Visiting Professor for Research Activities at La Sapienza University, Rome, and as City of Vienna Visiting Professor for Urban Culture and Public Space at the Technical University Vienna. In 2016 Frank was a visiting researcher at the Alfred Deakin Research Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University in Melbourne and at the African Studies Unit of the New School of African and Gender Studies, University of Cape Town. Her work focuses on urban studies, tourism and heritage studies, comparative city research, and on the sociology of space and place. Recent publications include: Stadium Worlds: Football, Space and the Built Environment (ed., with Silke Steets, Routledge 2010).

Lars Meier is Guest Professor for Urban and Regional Sociology in the Department of Sociology at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. His research focuses on social inequalities and diversities, urban studies, globalization theory and qualitative methods. At the moment he is working in a research project on poverty in times of crisis.