ABSTRACT
Contemporary social life is marked by increasing levels of physical movement of people, goods and symbols. Within this context much theoretical activity points at notions of globalisation and the network society (e.g. Castells 1996). Such macro-theoretical interpretations capture only parts of the meaning of contemporary mobility. In this chapter the thesis is that by exploring contemporary mobility practices in an everyday life context and by applying theories and concepts coined by Erving Goffman, a much richer sociological vocabulary emerges. The chapter contains a rereading of Goffman with the ambition of presenting a vocabulary that makes the macro-societal conditions for contemporary mobility comprehensible from the vantage point of the ‘little practices’ of everyday life. The exploration of everyday life mobility using Goffman as guide makes us see that waiting in line for the bus, riding the subway, biking to work or the freeway commute are by no means neither just instrumental practices of getting from A to B nor trivial acts of physical displacement. Goffman’s insights into the ‘little practices’ of social life substantiate that contemporary everyday life mobility is produced by and reproducing culture and social norms. Goffman’s concepts provide us with a rich vocabulary describing how everyday life mobility in the contemporary city is regulated both formally and informally. Clearly, Goffman’s immediate applicability is more relevant in ‘micro-mobility’ studies than in, for example, studies of global migration and large-scale population shifts, even though such ‘macro-phenomena’ could also be studied at the ‘micro-level’ (this distinction being perhaps less fruitful at the end of the day). The chapter offers a novel way of conceptualising the sociological meaning of an important contemporary phenomenon as it invites application of Goffman’s work to a new fi eld. This is in particular explored in the concepts of the ‘mobile with’ and the ‘networked self’ where the legacy of Goffman is put to use analysing the phenomenon of everyday life mobility.
