Call for Papers

Special Issue — Engaging rhythmanalysis in critiques of precarious work-related mobilities

Co-editors:

Lachlan Barber (Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University)

Emily Reid-Musson (Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland)

Description:

Work mobilities  – travel to and from work, travel as part of work, travel in search of work and livelihoods, and travel within the fabric of social, community, and family lives – are fragile, complex and challenging (Neis et al., 2018) . The frictions, costs, and burdens associated with the restructuring of work-home-mobility matrices are unevenly distributed. In some sectors, particularly feminized, immigrant, migrant, and racialized work sectors, long-distance or extended journeys or commutes are long-standing rather than new requirements (Premji, 2017). Yet there is a lack of systematic and comparative research on inter-related patterns and effects of shifting work mobilities. This special issue responds to and explains the relationships between different patterns and experiences of non-standard work mobilities through the framework of rhythmanalysis. We broadly conceptualize rhythms as the ‘stitching’ that bind together and form the shared backbone of reproduction and production, the zone of “concrete human reality” (Sheringham, 2006: 147). The notion that how and where we work aligns with how and where we live remains taken for granted by urban and social researchers. The current conjuncture, characterized by deepening inequalities and crises of class and identity that in part stem from evolving work mobilities, is worthy of this inquiry: we need theory-building research to respond to topics normally studied in isolation from one another.

For Lefebvre and Regulier (1999: 6) work “remains… the quilting point that ties everything together.” In spite of this, rhythmanalysis is infrequently used and explored in its original neo-Marxist critical context to study the spatial contours of working lives.  We are particularly interested in contributions that explore the following themes:

·         How rhythms of home, work, and mobilities are differentially organized and intensify risk between differentially situated groups of people

·         Rhythmanalysis as means of exploring and critiquing complex work-, employment- and unemployment-related mobilities in relation to social inequalities (Neis et al., 2018; Reid-Musson, 2017)

·         How rhythmanalysis relates to earlier critical scholarship on mobilities and everyday life, which engaged the concept of rhythms (Buttimer 1976) and the gendered negotiation of the constraints of time and space on movement (Dyck 1990), among other themes

·         Exploration of the politics of knowledge surrounding rhythmanalysis as an approach: how the framework is used, to what ends, and how it may acquire greater critical edge

·         Engagement with both theoretical and applied aspects of rhythmanalysis research (i.e., for policy, practice, and advocacy/activism in relevant domains such as labour market or health policy)

·         Demonstrates a clear connection to mobilities scholarship (mobility politics, mobility justice, etc.) (Bissell, 2010; Cresswell, 2010; Freudendal-Pedersen, Hannam, & Kesselring, 2016; Roseman, 2019)

Articles in the special issue will be from various disciplinary perspectives, and may focus on any geographical location.

To indicate your interest in submitting a paper for consideration as part of the special issue, please send a paper title, 250 word abstract, and author details and affiliations by June 15^th, 2019 tolbarber@hkbu.edu.hk and ereidmusson@mun.ca. Notices of acceptance will be sent to authors by July 1^st, 2019. The deadline for full paper drafts is October 1^st, 2019.

References

Bissell, D. (2010). Passenger mobilities: affective atmospheres and the sociality of public transport. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 28(2), 270–289.

Buttimer, A. (1976). Grasping the dynamism of lifeworld. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 66(2), 277-292.

Cresswell, T. (2010). Towards a politics of mobility. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 28(1), 17–31.

Dyck, I. (1990). Space, time, and renegotiating motherhood: an exploration of the domestic workplace. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 8(4), 459-483.

Freudendal-Pedersen, M., Hannam, K., & Kesselring, S. (2016). Applied mobilities, transitions and opportunities. Applied Mobilities, 1(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2016.1150562

Lefebvre, H., Regulier, C., & Zayani, M. (1999). The rhythmanalytical project. Rethinking Marxism, 11(1), 5-13.

Neis, B., Barber, L., Fitzpatrick, K., Hanson, N., Knott, C., Premji, S., & Thorburn, E. (2018). Fragile synchronicities: diverse, disruptive and constraining rhythms of employment-related geographical mobility, paid and unpaid work in the Canadian context.Gender, Place & Culture, 25(8), 1175–1192. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2018.1499616

Premji, S. (2017). Precarious Employment and Difficult Daily Commutes. Industrial Relations/Relations Industrielles, 72(1), 77. https://doi.org/10.7202/1039591ar

Reid-Musson, E. (2018). Intersectional rhythmanalysis: Power, rhythm, and everyday life. Progress in Human Geography, 42(6), 881–897. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132517725069. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132517725069

Roseman, S. R. (2019). Precarious mobility and spectacle dwelling on a ferry commute commute. Applied Mobilities, Early Online View, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2018.1553497

Sheringham, M. (2006). Everyday life: Theories and practices from surrealism to the present. Oxford: Oxford UP.