<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > Zhang Zihao</h1>
【Editor's Note】 In recent years, mobility has gradually become a research hotspot in the field of social sciences at home and abroad. The emphasis on movement means breaking the fixed investigation of society, reconnecting the social composition of various relationships, substances, symbols, and emotions with a dynamic vision, and thus analyzing the different movement patterns between them. To this end, this journal interviewed Professor Dai Yuchen on what is mobility theory, how to understand the ideological context of mobility theory, and how to carry out research related to mobility.
Reporter: In recent years, mobility research has gradually become a research hotspot in the field of journalism and communication at home and abroad. So, what is mobility, mobility and mobility, how are the two conceptually different? How do we differentiate?
Dai Yuchen: Mobility and mobility actually express different meanings, which can be glimpsed from the roots of these two in the English context. The root source of mobility is move, which means movement, motion, and displacement; while the root source of liquidity is liquid, which means liquid and flowing. In Fluid Modernity, Sigismund Baumann uses the term fluidity to express the social forms of space-time softening, regulation disarming, and power shifting relative to the solid-state qualities of modernity; mobility does not address this contrast and transformation of solid-state modernity.
Specifically, mobility studies are the study of the movement of subjects and the process of movement, and emphasize the social, cultural, and political implications of this process of movement. Contemporary journalism and communication studies and even the social sciences need to pay more attention to this "mobility turn." When modernity intervenes in urban life, many movements involve not just movement in the simple physical sense, but become a process of shaping and producing meaning, and thus expressing rich social, cultural and political implications. At the heart of mobility research is "the placement of social relationships in motion, linking different means of movement with diverse social experiences that have been developed through long-distance propagation."
Reporter: In your opinion, how to understand this "mobile turn" of journalism and communication research and even social science research? How to sort out the theoretical framework and ideological context of mobility? What does combing this "mobile turn" bring us?
Dai Yuchen: In social science research in general, and in continental sociology in particular, this "mobility turn" has occurred, and there are several main points in terms of expansion.
First, "mobile steering" breaks with the "sedentary thinking" of previous studies. In the settlementist view, only nodes are meaningful, and moving routes are only ways of crossing meaningless spaces and leading to the sacredness of node places. Instead, mobility research focuses on how the subject moves between nodes and the social, cultural, and even economic implications of what happens in the process. Therefore, we need to liberate ourselves from the "fixed thinking" of sedationism and look at the problem from the perspective of a movement.
Second, "mobile steering" brings a dynamic analytical perspective to the object. In human geography and journalism and communication, we will emphasize concepts such as "locality" and "sense of identity". But in the view of the mobility shift, local and meaningful activities are actually constructed along the flow network and mobility, through various ephemeral practices. Therefore, there is a need for a dynamic thinking, which is also in line with breaking the "fixed thinking".
Third, the "mobile turn" opens up a vision of deterritorialisation. From the perspective of mobility, when we no longer focus on fixed nodes, but pay attention to the movement process between nodes, there is no global and local difference, overall and local difference, internal and external difference.
Fourth, "mobile turning" focuses on the material basis of mobile generation. Propagation activity is a process of mobility, which is not about what changes occurs during the movement of nodes, but how the process of propagation between nodes is achieved. Thus, the material basis of mobility production, such as media, networks, railways, roads, and transportation, constitute the possible conditions under which movements can be generated.
Fifth, it is a critique of the power of mobility from the perspective of political economy. Why do rural farmers not have the high-intensity, high-frequency, and high-tendency movement of white-collar workers in the city? This is mainly reflected in the difference in movement ability. And this difference in mobility, the imbalance in the distribution of mobility, brings about political, economic and even class differences.
Reporter: For mobility research, what research fields and research topics are currently discussed by domestic and foreign scholars?
Dai Yuchen: The new mobilities paradigm mainly distinguishes five research areas and research topics related to mobility, namely: "corporal travel", "physical movement", "imaginative travel", "virtual travel", and "communication travel" ”（communicative travel）。 The five realms of the body, the object, the imaginary, the virtual, and the communicative constitute the "new mobile paradigm." If we enter through the perspective of mobility, the phenomena of communication that we are familiar with can be newly explained, and these seemingly ordinary phenomena can be explained in new meanings.
Separately, "body travel" studies how body movement in work, life, leisure, social interaction, and immigration constructs different "time-space modality." There are many research topics such as tourists, commuters, immigrants, and so on. Take Benjamin's urban life as an example, the act of hanging out does not have a solidity in the sense of time and space, but an improvised, casual movement process, and the social and cultural implications generated by the practice of hanging out are worth thinking about and reflecting on.
"Physical displacement" refers to how the various commodities and goods in circulation transform people's space and the social meaning of residence. "Physical displacement" is more concerned with the significance and impact of the flow of goods and goods on human society. In 2020, some scholars studied domestic waste from a material perspective, explored how domestic waste in Beijing flows in the surrounding areas, and analyzed the political, social and economic social implications constructed in it. In addition, there are many research topics related to freight, transnational pollution, and technologically nostalgic goods in the second-hand market.
"Imaginary Travel" studies the temporal-spatial imagination and cultural connotations presented by various media representations, fantasies, and exchanges. For example, some scholars have studied art, film films, television programs, etc., and paid attention to the meaning of imaginative and virtual symbols presented through media representations.
"Virtual travel" is highly related to the media research of journalism and communication in the cybertron era, which refers to how behavior in the virtual environment changes real actions, transforms the meaning of time and space, and transcends physical boundaries. There are many research topics such as online games, information flow, online backpackers, surveillance technology, etc. Recently, there have been many research results in the academic community on Hungry Riders and Takeaway Brothers. This is also in line with the theme of mobility research, which is how virtual data aggregation regulates and regulates our real-life physical bodies, affecting our real-life physical movements. Although the rider is physically moving physically, under the efficiency-first arithmetic system, the rider's body no longer belongs to the rider himself, but is highly bound to the algorithm. The rider is no longer an individual with agency, but becomes an appendage to machines and algorithms, and his movement routes are predetermined by algorithms and data.
The final research theme, "communication travel", refers to the communication pathways formed between people through physical behavior, texts, symbols, and electronic media. There is no shortage of communication behaviors formed by offline, face-to-face, and physical activities such as music and dance.
Reporter: In addition to the theoretical framework and research themes, research methods are also an important part of a research. Can you tell us about the research methods related to mobility research?
Dai Yuchen: First of all, the common methods in qualitative research, such as participatory observation, interviews, and ethnography, are all very consistent with the research methods of mobility research. Secondly, in mobility research, "time-space diary" is a more common method. For example, when doing research on commuting issues, you can record the experience of time and space in question at a fixed time period. The third is the study of mobile ethnography, which can be used when we study a web forum in a virtual space. A more typical case is Liu Hailong's research on the "Emperor Bar Expedition" incident. Recently, some domestic studies have adopted a relatively novel research method called the "walkingthrough method". When studying an application software, it is necessary to examine the details in each app, examine the use of different links in each app, and examine the connection between the information in different apps. Through the researcher's personal mobile practice, to collect the research materials they need. The final category is material discourse analysis. We all know that discourse analysis is more of a textual material, while material discourse is an analysis of the textual, emotional, and social meaning behind the object.
Expert Profile: Dai Yuchen, Associate Professor of the Department of Political Science of East China Normal University, Shanghai "Chenguang Talents" (2019), graduated from the School of Journalism of Fudan University, mainly engaged in cultural research and contemporary critical theory, media sociology and other aspects of teaching and scientific research work, presided over the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Science Research Youth Project, Shanghai "Chenguang Scholars" Project, mainly part-time researcher of the New Media Data Research Institute of East China University of Political Science and Law, researcher of the Research Center for Political Communication and Public Relations of East China Normal University, etc.; Encountering the "Parallax View": Žižek and Cultural Studies", the paper was published in journals such as Literary Review, Journalism and Communication Studies, Literary and Art Theory Research, and International Press, and was reprinted in full by the National People's Congress of China.
About author:Zhang Zihao, Master of Communication Studies, School of Communication, East China University of Political Science and Law, Academic Assistant of New Media Data Research Institute
Editor: Xu Feng
Source: News Forum No. 4, 2021