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SAGE Handbook of European Studies

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European Journal of Social Theory
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Mobile Methods and the Empirical

Monika Büscher

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY, UK, m.buscher{at}lancaster.ac.uk

John Urry

LANCASTER UNIVERSITY, UK, j.urry{at}lancaster.ac.uk

In this article we argue that the mobilities turn and its studies of the performativity of everyday (im)mobilities enable new forms of sociological inquiry, explanation and engagement. New kinds of researchable entities arise, opening up a new or rediscovered realm of the empirical, and new avenues for critique. The mobilities paradigm not only remedies the academic neglect of various movements, of people, objects, information and ideas. It also gathers new empirical sensitivities, analytical orientations, methods and motivations to examine important social and material phenomena and fold social science insight into responses. After an outline of the mobilities paradigm, this article provides a wide-ranging review of emergent `mobile methods' of studying (im)mobilities. We discuss some of the new researchable entities they engender and explore important implications for the relationship between the empirical, theory, critique, and engagement.

Key Words: the empirical • engaged social studies • mobile methods • mobilities turn

European Journal of Social Theory, Vol. 12, No. 1, 99-116 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1368431008099642
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