Many aspects of economic and social life are increasingly conducted "on the move" or away from "home." Modern technologies make it possible to be mobile and connected at the same time. Mobile communications technologies are playing an increasingly important part in the world today. At the same time urban transportation and surveillance systems are also being rebuilt and updated. Notions of mobility are changing and influencing patterns of movement, co-presence, social exclusion and security across many urban contexts.
In Mobile Technologies of the City Mimi Sheller and John Urry bring together a carefully selected group of innovative case studies which trace the emergence both of the new socio-technical practices of the city and of a new theoretical paradigm for mobilities research. The case studies on Vienna, Liverpool, Bristol, London, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, range across media, including guidebooks, web sites, train schedules, WI-FI, cinema, mobile phones, and mobile gaming, encompassing infrastructures such as road and rail systems, airline networks and hubs, internet routers and wireless "hot spots." The case studies also focus on urban sites including streets, train platforms, bus stops, airports, internet cafes, park-benches and cars.
Mobile Technologies of the City contributes new theoretical perspectives on mobility, communication and security in a world full of easily available access to physical mobilities and communication technologies.