Bringing emotions to time geography: the case of mobilities of poverty

Abstract

Although there is ample evidence that the way we feel and anticipate feeling in certain situations or places can assert great influence on our behavior, this emotional component of the space–time path has for the most part remained external to time geographical analyses. Working from within a time geographical framework, this paper shows that spatio-temporal and emotional boundaries are both relevant and interacting while persons travel their paths through time and space. To that purpose we suggest a reinterpretation of authority constraints and to take into account the biological and cultural expressions of individuals. The rather static conceptualizations of the poverty–context relationship in poverty studies could benefit from an emotionally sensitive time geography. We draw from a small case study of low-income single mothers in San Francisco, California.