Education and the Mobility Turn

The ‘mobile turn’ in human geography, sociology and cultural studies has resulted in a hitherto unparalleled focus on the critical role that mobility plays in conserving and regenerating society and culture. In this instance, ‘mobility’ refers not just to the physical movement of goods and peoples, ideas and symbols; it can also be analytically applied to the technologies used to facilitate their movement.

One such technology is education, which has yet to fall the under the purview of the mobility lens – something that this collection endeavours to redress. Its contributing authors, drawn from Canada, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, explore salient issues relating to education and mobility. These include studies of the career implications for academics of moving across borders; the impact of university study on prison populations; policy mobility and the charter school movement; affect theory and policy development in Canada; educational advertising on Sydney trains and stations; and the employment mobile approaches to track policy development and implementation.

One notable feature of the mobility turn is the willingness of its adoptees to explore innovative research methods. Variously demonstrating the efficacy and cogency of autoethnography, affect theory, textual ethnography and human geography for a mobility-empowered education analytics, this collection is no exception. This book was originally published as a special issue of Critical Studies in Education.

Kalervo N. Gulson is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales, Australia. His work draws on human geography, education policy studies, and science and technology studies. His current research investigates whether new knowledge, methods and technologies from the life and computing sciences will substantively alter education policy and governance. His most recent book is Education policy and racial biopolitics in multicultural cities (with P. Taylor Webb, 2017).

Colin Symes is an Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Educational Studies at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He is the author and editor of several books including Setting the Record Straight: A Material History of Classical Music (2004) and Transporting Moments: Mobility, Australian Railways and the Trained Society (2015). He is currently undertaking research into the onomastics and iconography of schooling.