Mundane urban (im)mobilities: work, domestic, and family lives of migrant building workers in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Interdisciplinary research from China has generated a wealth of quantitative and qualitative insights into trans-, national, regional, and local migration patterns over long and short distances through attention to diverse topics, socio-economic groups, and case-study locations. Our contribution in this paper is to advance recent critical work that is directing focus from rural-to-urban “circular movements” toward more complex spatialities and temporalities. To add value to that project, we not only engage with studies of urban (im)mobilities per se but also elaborate productive new avenues from across interdisciplinary mobilities research. Specifically, we draw on feminist, materialist, and more-than-representational thinking to highlight the contingent relatedness of migrants’ daily lives across diverse work, domestic, and family times/spaces both within and beyond cities. In doing so, we show how exploration of mundane urban (im)mobilities offers new insights to challenge binary depictions of city/countryside, home/destination, movement/stasis, belonging/marginalization, and moored/unmoordness. The conclusion signposts new research opportunities.