Norwegian Network on Geographies of Mobilities

The aim of the network is to gather geographer across sub-disiclinary boundaries to discuss and develop the discipline through a lens of mobility. In the project period from 1st January to 1st October we constituted the network and the board. As of 30th June 2016, we had 30 members from a number of different institutions in Norway. We have established a homepage (http://nngm.no/) and so far condkucted four workshops with the members of the network and one doctoral course together with the Norwegian Researcher School in Geography. In the workshops our own members have contributed together with international participation by John Urry (University of Lancaster), Keith Halfacree (University of Wales, and with Centre for Rural Research), Jonas Larsen (Roskilde University), Katherine Gough (Loughborough Univeristy) and Tim Cresswell (Northeastern University, Boston). Several proposals have been sent to the Research Council of Norway, and conference sessions at AAG (Chicago 2015) and Nordic Geography Meeting (NGM, Tallinn 2015) arranged with support from the network. During the last period of the funding for the network, we have worked furyther on piublications and meeting points around publications as planned from the beginning of the establishment of the network. These activities have resulted in two larger publications im progress. O, after a session at the AAG in Chicago, Jørgen Carling (PRIO) edits together with Francis Collins a special issue of Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies titled "Aspriation, Desires and the Drivers of Migration". Additionally, an edited book by Tanu Priya Uteng (Transportøkonomisk Institutt): (Im)mobilities in the city. Creating knowledge for planning cities in the Global South and postcolonial cities is in progress iwth support from the moblities network. The encounters and activities enabled by the network has led to more contact between geographers at universities, regional colleges and research institutes in this field. The network has thus enabled our aim of further develop geography as a discipline with a mobility lens.

This proposal responds to the call to follow up the evaluation of geography research in Norway by establishing networks. A proposed Norwegian Network on Geographies of Mobility is developed among five Norwegian institutions. The University of Agder, the U niversity of Bergen, the University of Oslo, the Peace Research Institute Oslo and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). NTNU is coordinating the network and will be the project owner. The primary objective of the Norwegian Network o n Geographies of Mobility is to create meeting points and establish channels that enable theoretical discussions and writing. We expect that this will help to increase the volume, quality and visibility of research that addresses human mobility in various forms with a disciplinary base in geography. New forms of inter-institutional collaboration, increased internationalisation and more international publishing are integral to this objective. Mobility encapsulates important features of our time and has be come a means through which we understand our contemporary world. Thinking geographically through mobility suggests a set of questions, theories and methodologies that take into consideration ways in which movement is represented and practiced. Into the di scussions of how to think geographically through mobility, the members of this network bring with them a diverse array of research experiences with different themes and from different contexts. We will discuss mobility through three related main themes; M ovements and moorings; politics of mobility and mobile methodologies.