Global Mobility (global + mobility)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Automobility and the Geographies of the Car

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 2 2009
Peter Merriman
The motor car or automobile has had a profound impact on global mobility, settlement patterns, the global economy, and the environment. Transport policy-makers and environmentalists highlight the unsustainable nature of contemporary petrol-car usage, yet despite widespread calls to rethink contemporary automobility and move towards more sustainable forms of public and private travel, it is only in recent years that social scientists have started to examine the social and cultural geography of the motor car, driving and the spaces of the street, road and motorway in any depth. In this article, I outline some of the research which has been undertaken on the geographies and sociologies of the spaces and practices of driving, focusing in particular on the UK. First, the article outlines the major impact the motor car has had on the geographies of road space. It examines how motor roads have shaped our experience of space and place, and outlines studies of their design, inhabitation, and regulation. Second, this article discusses embodied inhabitations of the spaces of the car: how motor cars have been consumed; how they have shaped our embodied apprehensions of our surroundings; and how they facilitate social and cultural relations. Finally, this article concludes by examining the innovative methods which are increasingly being utilised and developed by social scientists to explore the socialities of automotive spaces. [source]


A middle-class global mobility?

GLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 1 2008
The working lives of Indian men in a west London hotel
Abstract In this article we examine the working lives of young, single, middle-class Indian men employed in the increasingly global hospitality sector in London, UK. Using a case study of a single hotel, we investigate a particular form of Indian middle-class global mobility that differs from both the well-documented ,low status', unskilled migrant as well as the highly-skilled, science oriented migrants. We explore how their jobs both reinforce and challenge middle-class Indian notions of masculinity, as well as how the recruitment process is both gendered and economically selective. We suggest that the transnational formation of Indian middle-class identity is drawn from four main categories: a middle-class lifestyle in India, class-based motivations, the gendered and class based recruitment process of the UK hospitality industry, and the performance of class-based gender identities. [source]


End-to-end QoS and global mobility management in an integrated satellite/terrestrial network

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKING, Issue 1 2004
P. Conforto
Abstract For decades, the development of the Internet was driven by the purpose of providing applications to non-mobile users. No specific Quality of Service (QoS) requirement is necessary, other than ensuring reliability in the end-to-end data transfers. As such, best effort service model was deemed more than appropriate to satisfy the users' needs. Nevertheless, the scenario has changed in the last few years. A new population of nomadic users, who requires access to Internet services regardless of their location and mode of transportation is growing, while new typologies of Internet applications are being continuously developed, in which best effort service level may no longer be adequate. The SUITED project has been devised to address the emerging issues generated by this new and challenging scenario. SUITED aims at contributing towards the design and deployment of the Global Mobile Broadband System (GMBS), a unique satellite/terrestrial infrastructure, which will ensure that nomadic users have access to Internet services with a negotiated QoS. An overview of the main results achieved in the SUITED project is provided in this article. Some of the most innovative solutions developed by the SUITED team for the joint management of global mobility and end-to-end QoS support are presented. The SUITED demonstrator platform, which was developed to validate the system specifications, is also described. Finally, the results of the experimental measurement campaigns carried out with this platform are reported. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]