ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the subject of the book: mobilities and immobilities in/of remote places. Beginning with a basic definition of remoteness, the chapter goes on to conceptualize remote not as a physical condition but as a relational outcome of mobility constellations. More precisely, remoteness is approached as a tension between overlapping dynamics that simultaneously make it and unmake it. Remoteness is thus the emergent outcome from the interaction between the connections intended to extinguish it and the disconnections—either intentional or unintended—that end up reproducing it. From this perspective the focus shifts to understanding how a place and its residents practice, experience, and make sense of its varying intensities of remoteness. The introduction further outlines how from such perspective remove and remoteness can be understood as configurations of movements that are channeled through conduits affording connection and disconnection, a sense of proximity or distance, as well as opportunities for cultivating accessibility or separation.
