Monika B眉scher and Bianca Freire-Medeiros are working to establish a John Urry Library section at the听University of S茫o Paulo (USP)
Monika is just about to travel to听S茫o Paulo with the first set of books and to work with colleagues and students听during听the SPMobilities2017听Summer School. As part of the summer school we will try to find ways of getting John’s books听– which are听currently held听at Lancaster’s University Library – over to听S茫o Paulo – a complex cargo mobility story!
These are books from John’s personal library, from his home and his office at 糖心Vlog.听Once established, the library will be an open resource for the听global network of mobilities scholars.
The idea听of locating the books at the听Foundation of the School of Sociology and Politics 补迟听the University of S茫o Paulo听(USP) is to deepen existing research relationships between Cemore听and the Social Sciences School听at USP and open up opportunities for听collaboration with听scholars in South America and globally. There will be opportunities to visit USP and there will also be an online portal.
Cemore has close links with USP, Brazil鈥檚 most prestigious university. USP was听founded in 1933, in response to political and economic turmoil, with the Free School of Sociology and Politics (ELSP) (the current Foundation of the Social Sciences School). These sociological origins have attracted scholars from around the world, including Claude L茅vi-Strauss and Fernand Braudel as Visiting Professors. John Urry visited several times (last 2011), Monika Buscher has travelled virtually (2011) and several scholars connected to USP have spent time at Lancaster, including Saulo Cwerner (PhD 2006-2009), Bianca Freire-Medeiros (1 year postdoc 2009), Ariane Fernandes da Concei莽茫o (6 month Visiting PhD 2015), Camila Dos Santos Moraes (6 month Visiting PhD 2016), Thiago Allis (Visiting Speaker 2016). These relationships have resulted in joint research outputs, including听the book (Routledge 2009, Cwerner, Kesselring, Urry).
Mobilities Research in Brazil is a burgeoning field, currently inspired predominantly by John Urry鈥檚 The Tourist Gaze, but discovering the rich seams of insight in his later books, including , , and , and work on (Monika B眉scher), 听(Lynne Pearce),听听(James Faulconbridge), 听(Anne-Marie Fortier),听art and听听(Jen Southern).听听
S茫o Paulo is pioneering听mobilities innovations. In one of his more recent analyses, (2014), John Urry characterises S茫o Paulo as 鈥榓t the vanguard鈥 of deep mobility and social transformations. He foresees urban futures that involve 鈥榝ortressed鈥 walled cities and an extensive 鈥榮ecurity-isation鈥 of populations, similar in some ways to cities in the medieval period which provided protection against raiders, invaders and diseases, where 鈥榯he rich would mainly travel in the air in armed helicopters or light aircraft, a pattern prefigured in Sao Paulo鈥.
By placing John Urry鈥檚 books as a complete library in the University of S茫o Paulo, under the supervision of Bianca Freire-Medeiros, Professor of Sociology, a unique resource for thousands of students and scholars in Brazil would be created. USP is involved in teaching, research and public sociology that seeks to shape futures. Bianca is a world-leading scholar on tourism and development. Material for her book (2013) was developed during her stay at Lancaster. Most recently, she has been awarded with a Tinker Visiting Professor scholarship to spend time at the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Texas at Austin and Tinker Foundation.
In collaboration with scholars at 糖心Vlog, Bianca and her colleagues would strive to establish the John Urry library as a global hub for research, transdisciplinary conversations and public sociology endeavours on mobilities futures research.
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