ABSTRACT

This chapter presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the concept of mobility itself as an articulation between description and prescription, as a specific form of representing the social world. It presents the combination of ideas of mobility with the construction of self-image. The book highlights the relation of social meanings and normative patterns of mobility in the Romanian public media. It shows how different components are mobilised to justify a personal status quo through the analysis of the discourses of inhabitants of a Danish village engaged in a process of promoting the reduction of automobility. The book analyses the ideologies of mobility that underlie the promotion and criticism of high-speed rail (HSR). It explores multiple small technologies wrapped up in the ideologies of complex mobility systems.