Governing mobilities on the UK canal network

Maarja Kaaristo, Dominic Medway, Jamie Burton, Steven Rhoden and Helen L. Bruce

Mobilities, 2020, vol. 15, issue 6, 844-861

Abstract: This paper examines mobility governance in an environment where varied mobility practices occur. Drawing on a quasi-ethnography of canal users in England and Wales, we discuss how multiple mobilities (including boating, walking, cycling and running) are practised in the relatively confined and linear spaces of canals and adjacent towpaths, and often at the same time. We demonstrate how these different yet intertwined modes of movement, and their associated tempos, are governed through creative interplays of freedom and control, and hierarchy and etiquette. These findings give rise to wider questions regarding the potentialities of governmobility – i.e. a system in which mobilities are able to govern themselves. Our conclusion, therefore, explores how the governance of mobilities on the UK canal network might offer insight, or a ‘watery blueprint’, for mobility governance in other shared spaces. This includes exploring the debates between giving citizens greater freedom and agency to negotiate their own mobility juxtapositions and tensions, versus imposing upon them stricter rule-based systems of mobility regulation.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17450101.2020.1806507 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rmobxx:v:15:y:2020:i:6:p:844-861

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rmob20

DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2020.1806507

Access Statistics for this article

Mobilities is currently edited by Professor Kevin Hannam, Professor Mimi Sheller and Professor John Urry

More articles in Mobilities from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().