“Part of the hydro-social cycle, human and animal bodies are inextricably linked with the water bodies, and the inland waterways are thus liquid and hybrid places that come to exist through mobilities, materialities and convivial interactions,” according to Maarja Kaaristo, a researcher in Tourism Mobilities at the Department of Marketing, Retail and Tourism, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom. Kaaristo was delivering a special lecture on “Liquid linear places: rivers and canals in the UK” organised by the Inter University Centre for Social Science Research & Extension (IUCSSRE), Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala.
Kaaristo said that there is a network of around 5,000 km of navigable and 3,000 km unnavigable inland waterways in the United Kingdom, which has undergone a transformation from being used mainly for transportation to predominantly leisure usage. Giving a historical overview of the development of the canals, which were one of the key enablers of the Industrial Revolution, she said that after falling into disuse and disrepair after the introduction of railways, they were transformed during the 20th century, largely repurposed from transport to leisure use. Kaaristo discussed contemporary waterways as places of multiple activities and practices including holiday boating, walking, angling, and cycling as well as working and dwelling both on land and on water.
Based on a long-term ethnographic research on the canals and rivers of England and Wales, Kaaristo focused on primarily mobilities and mobility governance on canals and towpaths, the limited multi-user spaces where multiple mobilities with varying tempos take place simultaneously. The different yet intertwined modes of movement (walking, running, cycling, dogwalking, boating, canoeing, etc.) can create situations of potential mobility tension and sometimes conflict. Analysing the interplays of these varying mobilities and showing how they emerged in constant creative negotiations between the canal users, she said that “there is a sense of uncertainty, which, instead of being disruptive, is actually full of potentialities since it produces increased spatial attentiveness.” Kaaristo said that the mobilities on the canal are not governed using rigid top-down approaches but instead, nudge tactics, whereby the canal users are encouraged to negotiate their mobility actions among themselves. Discussing this through the concept of ‘governmobility,’ a system in which mobilities are able to govern themselves, she drew parallels with ‘shared space’ urban planning schemes that integrate pedestrian and motorised traffic. Kaaristo said that results obtained from studying canal governmobilities could also be relevant to both understanding as well as governing mobilities in other spatial contexts, especially so in a current pandemic context where people spend more time outdoors, whilst having to observe social distancing rules.
K.M. Seethi, Director, IUCSSRE, welcomed the session and Dr. Mathew Varghese, Adjunct Faculty, IUCSSRE coordinated the programme.
