Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mobilities on 31/10/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17450101.2016.1211829
Accepted author manuscript, 189 KB, PDF document
Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Doing methodological cosmopolitanism in a mobile world
AU - Tyfield, David Peter
AU - Blok, Anders
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Mobilities on 31/10/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17450101.2016.1211829
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - A decade of mobilities research has responded to the key question of how a ‘world on the move’ can and should be studied, including in terms of futures thereby brought into view and possibly shaped into being. What happens, however, if we shift our focus from the ‘world on the move’ to the ‘world on the move’, with all the cosmopolitical diversity this highlights? This paper explores this question regarding the parallel research programme of methodological cosmopolitanism, inspired and instigated by the work of Ulrich Beck. We examine how mobilities research and methodological cosmopolitanism illuminate, support and contrast with each other as paradigms of social science for the 21st century. We argue for two major changes in this regard: moving from ‘methods’ as tools for objective knowledge-gathering to partial but directed and knowledge-enabling dialogical interventions; and from ‘data’ as given ‘facts’ to the construction of new, promising boundary-crossing connections. These reorientations resonate strongly also with methodological directions from mobilities research, but in complementary ways. In particular, both relate to a shift of methodological imperatives, specifically regarding dynamic, interactive and power-attentive forms of social knowledge-making or phronesis, a situated practical wisdom. We illustrate these points in brief with insights from our own methodologically cosmopolitan research on key contemporary cosmopolitized issues, undertaken as part of Beck’s ‘cosmopolitan climate change’ (CosmoClimate) project.
AB - A decade of mobilities research has responded to the key question of how a ‘world on the move’ can and should be studied, including in terms of futures thereby brought into view and possibly shaped into being. What happens, however, if we shift our focus from the ‘world on the move’ to the ‘world on the move’, with all the cosmopolitical diversity this highlights? This paper explores this question regarding the parallel research programme of methodological cosmopolitanism, inspired and instigated by the work of Ulrich Beck. We examine how mobilities research and methodological cosmopolitanism illuminate, support and contrast with each other as paradigms of social science for the 21st century. We argue for two major changes in this regard: moving from ‘methods’ as tools for objective knowledge-gathering to partial but directed and knowledge-enabling dialogical interventions; and from ‘data’ as given ‘facts’ to the construction of new, promising boundary-crossing connections. These reorientations resonate strongly also with methodological directions from mobilities research, but in complementary ways. In particular, both relate to a shift of methodological imperatives, specifically regarding dynamic, interactive and power-attentive forms of social knowledge-making or phronesis, a situated practical wisdom. We illustrate these points in brief with insights from our own methodologically cosmopolitan research on key contemporary cosmopolitized issues, undertaken as part of Beck’s ‘cosmopolitan climate change’ (CosmoClimate) project.
KW - Mobilities
KW - methodological cosmopolitanism
KW - phronesis
KW - methods
KW - data
KW - East Asia
U2 - 10.1080/17450101.2016.1211829
DO - 10.1080/17450101.2016.1211829
M3 - Journal article
VL - 11
SP - 629
EP - 641
JO - Mobilities
JF - Mobilities
SN - 1745-0101
IS - 4
ER -