Understanding im-mobility

2/02/2021, h.  14:30 – 16:00
Piattaforma Teams

Send a request to giovanni.lanza@polimi.it

The research on mobilities has extensively focused on mobility’s social and political relevance, conceptualizing it as a complex set of spatial practices and a key driver for activity participation and social inclusion. Based on this interpretation, the relative absence of mobility (immobility) would assume a negative value, being the possible symptom of unfair distributions of the possibility to move. However, while this condition suggests the existence of immobilities that may be imposed over those who suffer from such inequality, a state of chosen immobility could instead be proper to individuals who live in conditions of proximity (both physical or virtual) to the activities they need for their wellbeing, pushing them to make few displacements and to live this condition positively.
The seminar will discuss the progress of a doctoral research that aims to develop a theoretical and operational framework to shed light on the difference between imposed and chosen immobilities. In the first case, this perspective can help design measures to enhance accessibility and social inclusion for disadvantaged populations. In the second, it can help detect the conditions that guarantee accessibility by proximity and replicate these conditions in other contexts.

Introduction and presentation: Giovanni Lanza (PhD candidate, DAStU)
Discussants: Luca Bertolini – University of Amsterdam, Karel Martens – Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Paola Pucci – DAStU Politecnico di Milano, Bruna Vendemmia – DAStU Politecnico di Milano

Responsabile: Giovanni Lanza