Lynne Pearce – författare

The book addresses long-standing geographical debates on place, place-attachment and kin/aesthetics as well as the unique spatial-temporal properties of ‘journeying’. Drawing upon the author’s road diaries and photographic archive dating back to the 1990s, the analysis centres on a route that runs from Scotland to Cornwall and which incorporates motorways, A-roads and unclassified country lanes. In addition to seeking to capture material evidence of change across a wide variety of road features and driving events - many of them transient, incidental and mundane - the book is also concerned with how change makes its presence known to the observer. This includes the question of how, and why, road-users sometimes develop powerful attachments for particular routes and roadside landmarks. To this end, the analysis is in conversation with recent debates in contemporary archaeology, the aesthetics of the everyday and geographical research on dis/orientation, as well as Henri Bergson’s foundational work on the phenomenology of perception and memory. And yet, it is the restless, teeming life of the British roads featured in the case studies - the A30, the A82, the M5, the M6, the M74 and Cornwall’s narrow, winding lanes - that makes this book memorable, especially given that, post-millennium, many of the changes to which it bears witness are epic in consequence. Congestion, electrification, automation, the arrival of SMART motorways and extreme weather events arising from climate change all feature here, alongside the disappearance of the roadside cafes, filling stations, phone boxes, lay-bys and snack bars associated with twentieth-century motoring.

This interdisciplinary exploration of Britain’s changing roads and roadscapes will appeal to academics and students working in, and across, the fields of social and cultural geography, mobilities studies, cultural history, literary and cultural theory and contemporary archaeology. Its autoethnographic case studies, historical route descriptions, photographic archive and general accessibility mean that it may also be of interest to road enthusiasts and the general reader.

The book addresses long-standing geographical debates on place, place-attachment and kin/aesthetics as well as the unique spatial-temporal properties of ‘journeying’. Drawing upon the author’s road diaries and photographic archive dating back to the 1990s, the analysis centres on a route that runs from Scotland to Cornwall and which incorporates motorways, A-roads and unclassified country lanes. In addition to seeking to capture material evidence of change across a wide variety of road features and driving events - many of them transient, incidental and mundane - the book is also concerned with how change makes its presence known to the observer. This includes the question of how, and why, road-users sometimes develop powerful attachments for particular routes and roadside landmarks. To this end, the analysis is in conversation with recent debates in contemporary archaeology, the aesthetics of the everyday and geographical research on dis/orientation, as well as Henri Bergson’s foundational work on the phenomenology of perception and memory. And yet, it is the restless, teeming life of the British roads featured in the case studies - the A30, the A82, the M5, the M6, the M74 and Cornwall’s narrow, winding lanes - that makes this book memorable, especially given that, post-millennium, many of the changes to which it bears witness are epic in consequence. Congestion, electrification, automation, the arrival of SMART motorways and extreme weather events arising from climate change all feature here, alongside the disappearance of the roadside cafes, filling stations, phone boxes, lay-bys and snack bars associated with twentieth-century motoring.

This interdisciplinary exploration of Britain’s changing roads and roadscapes will appeal to academics and students working in, and across, the fields of social and cultural geography, mobilities studies, cultural history, literary and cultural theory and contemporary archaeology. Its autoethnographic case studies, historical route descriptions, photographic archive and general accessibility mean that it may also be of interest to road enthusiasts and the general reader.

Over the past twenty years there has been something of a ‘mobilities turn’ across many disciplines in the social sciences. This book charts the increasing influence this turn is having on scholars in the arts and humanities, tracing the importance of questions and feelings of movement to scholars and arts practitioners across fields such as literary studies, historical geography, history, poetry and film. The book outlines what a mobilities turn might look like in the arts and humanities, tracing a genealogy of humanities engagements with themes of movement and mobility, and examining the different methods and textual sources humanities scholars have deployed. The book is uniquely positioned to speak to two audiences: mobilities scholars in the social sciences interested in learning more about how literary and cultural texts may be incorporated into their research, and researchers in the humanities who have only recently discovered that their thematic, or conceptual interest, in movement and mobility speaks directly to theories and philosophies that have circulated in the social sciences. This diverse and stimulating collection demonstrates the potential for future intellectual dialogues and creative collaborations around the theme of mobility. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Mobilities journal.

Over the past twenty years there has been something of a ‘mobilities turn’ across many disciplines in the social sciences. This book charts the increasing influence this turn is having on scholars in the arts and humanities, tracing the importance of questions and feelings of movement to scholars and arts practitioners across fields such as literary studies, historical geography, history, poetry and film. The book outlines what a mobilities turn might look like in the arts and humanities, tracing a genealogy of humanities engagements with themes of movement and mobility, and examining the different methods and textual sources humanities scholars have deployed. The book is uniquely positioned to speak to two audiences: mobilities scholars in the social sciences interested in learning more about how literary and cultural texts may be incorporated into their research, and researchers in the humanities who have only recently discovered that their thematic, or conceptual interest, in movement and mobility speaks directly to theories and philosophies that have circulated in the social sciences. This diverse and stimulating collection demonstrates the potential for future intellectual dialogues and creative collaborations around the theme of mobility. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Mobilities journal.

This book explores the formative role of mobilities in the production of our close relationships, proposing that the tracks—both literal and figurative— we lay down in the process play a crucial role in generating and sustaining intimacy. Working with diaries, journals and literary texts from the mid- to late-twentieth century, the book pursues this thesis through three phases of the lifecourse: courtship (broadly defined), the middle years of long-term relationships and bereavement. Building upon the author’s recent research on automobility, the text’s case studies reveal the crucial role played by many different types of transport—including walking—in defining our most enduring relationships. Conceptually, the book draws upon the writings of the philosopher, Henri Bergson, the anthropologist, Tim Ingold and the geographer, David Seamon, engaging with topical debates in cultural and emotional geography (especially work on landscape, memory and mourning), mobilities studies and critical love studies.