ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by reviewing the literature on mobilities, in particular the outpouring of scholarship that followed Sheller and Urry's provocative manifesto declaring the existence of a 'new mobilities paradigm'. It discusses the methodologies championed by mobilities scholars and reflects on the overlaps with physical cultural studies (PCS). The chapter explores the active body as a research tool, with a particular focus on the world of commuter cycling. A number of PCS scholars have also reflected on the body of the researcher within the research, which speaks to a significant strand of autoethnographic work within mobilities research. Both PCS and mobilities emphasize the importance of working between conventional disciplines, which inevitably means embracing a variety of methods beyond the positivitist and quantitative. Notwithstanding Merriman's caution, there has been considerable methodological innovation both within and beyond the mobilities debate that has been valuable in helping to analyse and conceptualize the mobile body.
