Between spaces and flows: towards a new agenda for neighbourhood research in an age of mobility

This article discusses the role of the neighbourhood
in an era of increased mobility. It explores the consequences of the
“new mobilities paradigm”, which argues that the growing importance
of flows – of people, goods and information – results in a de-territorialization
of social practices. Flows thus gain prominence
in comparison to places like regions and neighbourhoods. At the
same time, however, neighbourhoods continue to play a role in the
actions and imaginations of people, neighbourhood organizations,
and government policies. People still live in neighbourhoods, and
governments still try to solve often severe social problems through
neighbourhood policies. We argue that the neighbourhood has to
be re-imagined as a collection of hybrid nodes connecting a multiplicity
of flows that bind actors and objects in order to understand
the potential effectiveness of these policies. From this new mobilities
perspective, we make suggestions for future neighbourhood
research.