Politics and mobilities is one of IMER Bergens prioritized researh areas. The global increase in physical/material and virtual mobility, and the question of how such mobility should be governed, is currently shaping global, national and local politics. Tensions arising from the disagreements on how to handle mobilities have become a new common dimension of the cleavage structures that shape politics. Political mobilization and participation are increasingly influenced by transnational alliances and networks. Migrants and ethnic and religious minority groups are for instance central actors in political movements in homelands as well as in wider transnational movements and various diasporic alliances. Likewise, nationalist anti -migration mobilization works across national boundaries, creating transnational alliances between right-wing populists and extremists. Along with cross-border civil society collaboration against racism and discrimination, these phenomena constitute a frame for transnational political action which arguably impinges on politics at all levels. The impact is visible in the public sphere through struggles over the power to define who the legitimate participants of the public debates are and which views are morally worthy of having publicity. Thus, the concept of politics research in this topic operate with is wide, including all forms of power relations and political engagement: Concepts such as new publics, transnational publics, subaltern publics and counter-publics, and sub-politics and infra-politics add to the conventional perspective on politics as participation in elections, parties and civil organizations with a political aim. Theorising and understanding modern mobility is crucial to understanding contemporary politics, both as part of everyday practices and in formal politics and planning that structure, enable and govern mobility within various geographical scales.

Projects:

Trespassing borders – PhD project Halvar Andreassen Kjærre