Governing mobilities on the UK canal network

Kaaristo, Maarja and Medway, Dominic and Burton, Jamie and Rhoden, Steven and Bruce, Helen (2020) Governing mobilities on the UK canal network. Mobilities. ISSN 1745-0101

[thumbnail of Canal mobilities REVISED With Author Details]
Text (Canal mobilities REVISED With Author Details)
Canal_mobilities_REVISED_With_Author_Details.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial.

Download (353kB)

Abstract

This paper examines mobility governance in an environment where varied mobility practices occur. Drawing on a quasi-ethnography of canal users in England and Wales, we discuss how multiple mobilities (including boating, walking, cycling and running) are practised in the relatively confined and linear spaces of canals and adjacent towpaths, and often at the same time. We demonstrate how these different yet intertwined modes of movement, and their associated tempos, are governed through creative interplays of freedom and control, and hierarchy and etiquette. These findings give rise to wider questions regarding the potentialities of governmobility – i.e. a system in which mobilities are able to govern themselves. Our conclusion, therefore, explores how the governance of mobilities on the UK canal network might offer insight, or a ‘watery blueprint’, for mobility governance in other shared spaces. This includes exploring the debates between giving citizens greater freedom and agency to negotiate their own mobility juxtapositions and tensions, versus imposing upon them stricter rule-based systems of mobility regulation.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Mobilities
Additional Information:
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mobilities on 26/08/2020, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450101.2020.1806507
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3305
Subjects:
?? CANALSGOVERNMOBILITYSMART PLURALISMTEMPOSPATIAL INTERACTIONDEMOGRAPHYSOCIOLOGY AND POLITICAL SCIENCEGEOGRAPHY, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT ??
ID Code:
147169
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
07 Sep 2020 13:15
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
16 Sep 2023 02:12