To be held in the Larry Saha Room (HA2175) Haydon-Allen Building, ANU.  Presented by David Bissell, Lecturer, School of Sociology, RSSS.

Urban transport is an sphere where the necessity for social change is currently high on many diverse political agendas. One set of agendas circles around bodily sustainability where, for many, moving around cities has become an incredibly enervating experience. A second set of agendas pivots around environmental sustainability and the necessity to reduce car-dependency in urban areas. The key question animating policymakers and academics alike that unites both sets of agendas is: how do you change people’s travel behaviors to generate new ways of moving about cities? The set of answers that tend to dominate current debate cohere around infrastructural investment. Whilst this is certainly part of the story, such answers assume a rather restricted understanding of bodies caught up in these mobility systems. As such, we need to develop more nuanced understandings of these bodies in order to think about how social transformation takes place. As one response, this paper explores the interplay between two concepts—event and habit—to explore the transformation of mobility practices. Developing Foucault’s writings on the multiplicity of the event, this paper diagrams three event typologies—irruptive events, practice events and micro events—to explore how habit participates in distinct ways in the materialization of mobile bodies. Furthering our conceptual understandings that are sensitive to the irreducible susceptibility and receptivity of these mobile bodies is essential if we are to develop enhanced possibilities for social transformation.