RGS-IBG 2023: Queer Geographies of Active Travel

Conveners: Professor Rachel Aldred (Active Travel Academy, University of Westminster), Dr Ersilia Verlinghieri (Active Travel Academy, University of Westminster), Professor Amy Lubitow (Portland State University), Matt C. Smith (Brighton University). We have sponsorship from TGRG and are applying for sponsorship from SSQRG.

This session will explore queer perspectives on active travel, bringing in dialogue queer geographies and queer ecologies with transport and mobilities research. Only recently have transport and mobility scholarship engaged with the differential experiences and perspectives of transgender and gender non-conforming individuals (Lubitow et al., 2020; Weintrob et al., 2021; Shakibaei and Vorobjovas-Pinta, 2022). As ideas such as transmobilities (Lubitow et al., 2017) have started nuancing our understanding of mobility injustices on public transport, there is much scope for queer perspectives on active travel and exploring how queer geographies and ecologies might enrich our understanding of mobility justice.

We therefore invite authors to contribute with empirical and theoretical papers bringing a new insight on active travel and queer mobilities. Here, we view active travel inclusively (including but not limited to walking, wheeling, cycling, e-biking, skating, jogging, and running), and incorporating travel for a specific purpose and for leisure or play. Papers may explore queer/LGBTQIA+ experiences of active travel, for instance through skate clubs, or through walking and spending time outdoors in towns, cities, or rural areas. They may apply mobile methods (like go-along interviews) to queer experiences of place. They may also queer our understanding of active travel. For instance, exploring how active travel produces multiple intersecting and conflicting norms (including but not limited to hetero- and homonormativity), and/or deploying unorthodox combinations of methods and perspectives. We would also encourage contributors to reflect on how their paper relates to the conference theme of ‘climate changed geographies’, which might include, for instance, exploring the potential of queering climate change movements as they engage with transport policy. We welcome contributions addressing a range of geographical scales and using any kind of research methodology.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

· LGBTQIA+ experiences of active travel and of place as accessed through active modes

· Intersectionality, difference, and diversity within queer mobilities, e.g., around gender or ethnicity

· Policy and planning as they relate to queer mobilities and geographies of active travel

· Regulation and normativity as they affect queer active travel mobilities

· Rural or, conversely, urban queer geographies of active travel

· The role and work of organised groups, for instance, that bring LGBTQIA+ people together to participate in skating, bike maintenance, walking tours, cycling, etc.

· The use of artistic practice to represent and co-create queer active travel mobilities

· Queer activism, climate change and the remaking of urban mobilities

If you are interested in participating, please provide a max. 300-word statement and max. 100-word bio (including affiliation and e-mail address) to r.aldred@westminster.ac.uk and e.verlinghieri@westminster.ac.uk by 9th of March 2023. Please contact us should you have any queries.

References

Lubitow, A., Abelson, M.J. and Carpenter, E. 2020. Transforming mobility justice: Gendered harassment and violence on transit. Journal of Transport Geography. 82, p.102601.

Lubitow, A., Carathers, J., Kelly, M. and Abelson, M. 2017. Transmobilities: mobility, harassment, and violence experienced by transgender and gender nonconforming public transit riders in Portland, Oregon. Gender, Place & Culture. 24(10), pp.1398–1418.

Shakibaei, S. and Vorobjovas-Pinta, O. 2022. Access to Urban Leisure: Investigating Mobility Justice for Transgender and Gender Diverse People on Public Transport. Leisure Sciences. 0(0), pp.1–19.

Weintrob, A., Hansell, L., Zebracki, M., Barnard, Y. and Lucas, K. 2021. Queer mobilities: critical LGBTQ perspectives of public transport spaces. Mobilities. 16(5), pp.775–791.

Mobility

For the Mobile Lives Forum, mobility is understood as the process of how individuals travel across distances in order to deploy through time and space the activities that make up their lifestyles. These travel practices are embedded in socio-technical systems, produced by transport and communication industries and techniques, and by normative discourses on these practices, with considerable social, environmental and spatial impacts.

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Mobile methods

Mobile methods produce insight by moving physically, virtually or analytically with research subjects. They involve qualitative, quantitative, visual and experimental forms of inquiry, and follow material and social phenomena.

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