Mobilities and the Digital

Mobilities are increasingly being disrupted and transformed through the digital. These changes are (re)shaping the ways people, goods, and information move through space and time. There are now more and more examples of AI-enabled technologies materialising in cities including in the form of trials of automated vehicles, robotic delivery services, or experiments with drone technologies (Cugurullo et al., 2023). The interest in tracing the material contexts in which these technologies develop continues to evidence the every day and differentiated ways in which digitally-mediated mobilities are and will be experienced. Recent times of crisis have further stressed the importance of the digital in (re)shaping im/mobilities with COVID-19 highlighting shifts in relations of movement during times of national and global disruption (Akyelken and Hopkins, 2023). In feminist digital geographies and geographies of sexuality scholarship, the intertwining of corporeal and digital social relations is shown to be generative of mobilities at bodily scales hitherto underexplored within transportation-focused research. Examples like GPS-enabled and physical activity tracking devices further highlight the bodily scales in which technological mediations of movement operate. These are just some of the many examples digital geographers are engaging with and working through using concepts such as code/space (Kitchin and Dodge, 2011), spatial mediation (Leszczynski, 2015), and the automatic production of space (Thrift and French, 2002). This conference aims to understand transformations engendered by and through the digital on mobilities and how these changes are being experienced.

The 2024 DGRG symposium, hosted by the University of Birmingham’s Institute for STEMM in Culture and Society (Friday 21st June 2024), will provide a space to explore a wide range of topics and contexts where mobilities and the digital intersect as well as the broader societal, cultural and political contexts in which these changes occur. The conference invites papers, practice-based interventions, as well as digital shorts that speak to, but are not limited to, the following themes:

The differentiated implications and experiences of digitally-mediated mobilities, including in terms of race, gender, dis/ability, or class, as well as other forms of social difference

The diverse spatialities of digitally-mediated mobilities whether through ground, air, or water

The (re)shaping of everyday life and movement by and through algorithms, data, and technologies

Methodological insights or reflections on ways of researching im/mobilities, and its relation to the digital

Responsible and socially-informed innovation processes in science, technology, and engineering
 

This year’s conference invites scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and industry experts to contribute to a rich interdisciplinary dialogue that advances a shared understanding of the relationship between mobilities and the digital in contemporary society.

Call for contributions

We are seeking the following types of contributions to the symposium:

Individual Paper – A sole or multi-authored paper exploring empirical, theoretical, or practice-based insights. 

Practice-based Session – An opportunity to showcase innovative and creative approaches. These may be interactive, skills-based, practical or workshop-type contributions.

Linked Panel/Session – Three to five joint Individual Papers speaking to a coherent theme concerning mobilities and the digital. Or combined
Practice-based Sessions, run by three to five attendees.

Digital shorts – digital shorts are short videos (between 2 and 5 minutes in length) that introduce, or summarise, an aspect of your research. Your recorded video could discuss:

    Recent research findings

    An emerging research idea or interest

    A new or upcoming research output, publication, creative work, etc.

    Research methodology

    Approaches to teaching


    Uses of digital technologies within academia
 

This format has been deliberately designed to require limited preparation, so is ideal for postgraduates, early career researchers, those with caring responsibilities, or other commitments. You can view examples of digital shorts on the DGRG YouTube channel.

For accessibility purposes, please provide a transcript when submitting a digital short so that your video can be accurately subtitled.

To apply, please submit your contribution and 250-word abstract before Monday, April 15th, 2024 to our online submission form.

Movement

Movement is the crossing of space by people, objects, capital, ideas and other information. It is either oriented, and therefore occurs between an origin and one or more destinations, or it is more akin to the idea of simply wandering, with no real origin or destination.

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