Grounded in socio-visual thinking, this book addresses the emerging shift in the way social scientists move from a sociology of or through images toward a sociology with images. In doing so, this volume illustrates how the sky and atmosphere remain a surprisingly underexplored domain within visual sociology beyond the framework of drone-related research. With contributions from astronauts, artists, architects, sociologists, urbanists, visual culture theorists, geographers, anthropologists and more, this volume asserts how vertical and atmospherically framed socio-visual analysis is beginning to shape and inform how we see and experience urban spaces, travel, leisure, politics, and environmental challenges through various prisms, including artistic practices, methodological processes, and user-generated content.

This book is an empirically rich case-study of what is currently the most popular alternative-fuel vehicle in the history of motorization - the electric two-wheeler (e-bike). The book provides sociological insights into e-bike mobility in China and discusses politics, social practices and larger issues of mobility transition in urban China. Taking an accessible approach to the subject, the book identifies the main sociospatial conflicts regarding the use of e-bikes and discusses why electric two-wheeler mobility is important for the future of urban China and urban transportation globally. This book will be an invaluable read for urban geographers and transportation researchers, but also for academics and general readers interested in Chinese Studies, specifically in the area of urban mobility in China.

Sharing Mobilities focuses on the emergence of future sustainable and collaborative mobility cultures. At the intersection of physical and virtual capacity and access to people, goods, ideas, and services, this book poses fundamental challenges and opportunities for governance, economy, planning, and identity. The future of new collaborative forms of consumption and sharing would play a key role in the organization of everyday life and business. Sharing mobilities is more than simply sharing transport, and its diverse impacts on society and the environment demand thorough theory-led sociological research. With an extensive global range, the contributors present radical manifestations of sharing capacities throughout diverse countries, including Germany, Denmark, Japan, and Vietnam. The phenomenon of mobility is highly actual and social as well as politically relevant and urging. This collection focuses on open questions from the perspective of the mobilities turn while presenting state-of-the-art theory-based articles with applied perspectives. An ideal read for scholars based in social science and the interdisciplinary research on mobility, transports, and sharing economy. Sociologists, geographers, economists, urban governance researchers, and research students would also find this book of interest.

This book examines emerging debates and questions around cycling to critically analyse and challenge dominant framings and prevalent conventions of 'good cycling'. Cycling Societies brings to light the plurality of voices and forms of cycling in other societies, revealing the diversity and complexity of cycling across different socio-political regimes, geographies and cultures. It presents case studies from five continents and demonstrates the need of thinking comparatively about cycling and urban environments. The book pivots around the three themes of innovations, inequalities and governance and engages a diversity of voices: world-renowned academics in the field of cycling and urban mobility, cycling activists and transportation consultants. Synthesising academic contributions with policy briefs, this innovative book will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners of sustainable transportation, urban planning and mobility studies.

This book examines emerging debates and questions around cycling to critically analyse and challenge dominant framings and prevalent conventions of 'good cycling'. Cycling Societies brings to light the plurality of voices and forms of cycling in other societies, revealing the diversity and complexity of cycling across different socio-political regimes, geographies and cultures. It presents case studies from five continents and demonstrates the need of thinking comparatively about cycling and urban environments. The book pivots around the three themes of innovations, inequalities and governance and engages a diversity of voices: world-renowned academics in the field of cycling and urban mobility, cycling activists and transportation consultants. Synthesising academic contributions with policy briefs, this innovative book will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners of sustainable transportation, urban planning and mobility studies.

Sharing Mobilities focuses on the emergence of future sustainable and collaborative mobility cultures. At the intersection of physical and virtual capacity and access to people, goods, ideas, and services, this book poses fundamental challenges and opportunities for governance, economy, planning, and identity. The future of new collaborative forms of consumption and sharing would play a key role in the organization of everyday life and business. Sharing mobilities is more than simply sharing transport, and its diverse impacts on society and the environment demand thorough theory-led sociological research. With an extensive global range, the contributors present radical manifestations of sharing capacities throughout diverse countries, including Germany, Denmark, Japan, and Vietnam. The phenomenon of mobility is highly actual and social as well as politically relevant and urging. This collection focuses on open questions from the perspective of the mobilities turn while presenting state-of-the-art theory-based articles with applied perspectives. An ideal read for scholars based in social science and the interdisciplinary research on mobility, transports, and sharing economy. Sociologists, geographers, economists, urban governance researchers, and research students would also find this book of interest.

This collection of original articles deals with two intertwined general questions: what is the visual sphere, and what are the means by which we can study it sociologically? These questions serve as the logic for dividing the book into two sections, the first ("Visualizing the Social, Sociologizing the Visual") focuses on the meanings of the visual sphere, and the second ("New Methodologies for Sociological Investigations of the Visual") explores various sociological research methods to getting a better understanding of the visual sphere. We approach the visual sphere sociologically because we regard it as one of the layers of the social world. It is where humans produce, use, and engage with the visual in their creation and interpretation of meanings. Under the two large inquiries into the "what" and the "how" of the sociology of the visual sphere, a subset of more focused questions is being posed: what social processes and hierarchies make up the visual sphere? How various domains of visual politics and visuality are being related (or being presented as such)? What are the relations between sites and sights in the visual research? What techniques help visual researcher to increase sensorial awareness of the research site? How do imaginaries of competing political agents interact in different global contexts and create unique, locally-specific visual spheres? What constitutes competing interpretations of visual signs? The dwelling on these questions brings here eleven scholars from eight countries to share their research experience from variety of contexts and sites, utilizing a range of sociological theories, from semiotics to post-structuralism.

This collection of original articles deals with two intertwined general questions: what is the visual sphere, and what are the means by which we can study it sociologically? These questions serve as the logic for dividing the book into two sections, the first ("Visualizing the Social, Sociologizing the Visual") focuses on the meanings of the visual sphere, and the second ("New Methodologies for Sociological Investigations of the Visual") explores various sociological research methods to getting a better understanding of the visual sphere. We approach the visual sphere sociologically because we regard it as one of the layers of the social world. It is where humans produce, use, and engage with the visual in their creation and interpretation of meanings. Under the two large inquiries into the "what" and the "how" of the sociology of the visual sphere, a subset of more focused questions is being posed: what social processes and hierarchies make up the visual sphere? How various domains of visual politics and visuality are being related (or being presented as such)? What are the relations between sites and sights in the visual research? What techniques help visual researcher to increase sensorial awareness of the research site? How do imaginaries of competing political agents interact in different global contexts and create unique, locally-specific visual spheres? What constitutes competing interpretations of visual signs? The dwelling on these questions brings here eleven scholars from eight countries to share their research experience from variety of contexts and sites, utilizing a range of sociological theories, from semiotics to post-structuralism.

This book provides a user-friendly guide to the expanding scope of visual sociology, through a discussion of a broad range of visual material, and reflections on how such material can be studied sociologically. The chapters draw on specific case-study examples that examine the complexity of the hyper-visual social world we live in, exploring three domains of the 'relational image': the urban, social media, and the aerial. Zuev and Bratchford tackle issues such as visual politics and surveillance, practices of visual production and visibility, analysing the changing nature of the visual. They review a range of methods which can be used by researchers in the social sciences, utilising new media and their visual interfaces, while also assessing the changing nature of visuality. This concise overview will be of use to students and researchers aiming to adopt visual methods and theories in their own subject areas such as sociology, visual culture and related courses in photography, new-media and visual studies.

This book is an empirically rich case-study of what is currently the most popular alternative-fuel vehicle in the history of motorization - the electric two-wheeler (e-bike). The book provides sociological insights into e-bike mobility in China and discusses politics, social practices and larger issues of mobility transition in urban China. Taking an accessible approach to the subject, the book identifies the main sociospatial conflicts regarding the use of e-bikes and discusses why electric two-wheeler mobility is important for the future of urban China and urban transportation globally. This book will be an invaluable read for urban geographers and transportation researchers, but also for academics and general readers interested in Chinese Studies, specifically in the area of urban mobility in China.