Post‐socialist (auto)mobilities: Modernity, freedom and citizenship

Abstract

AbstractThis paper investigates the intersection of post‐socialism and mobility to not only widen the scope of “new mobilities paradigm” into “off the map” regions but also to highlight new insights for research on mobility by challenging the assumed borders between past and present and between “East” and “West,” as well as those between different mobilities. This paper discusses post‐socialist mobilities via three topics—modernity, freedom and citizenship—which are evident in automobility and beyond. Modernity denotes a mobile “modern age,” with mobility referring to freedom to move—both of which are then tied to the ways in which individuals are governed as citizens. By analysing the constellations of different mobilities vis‐à‐vis shifting power relations between state and citizens, as they are raised in the emerging research on post‐socialist mobilities, the aim of the paper is to stress the many similarities in terms of practices and regulations of mobility across the often‐assumed boundaries between socialist, post‐socialist, and “western” conditions. While the starting point for the paper is changing patterns of automobility and its governing, the paper also makes references to other mobilities.