Social and cultural geographies of air transport

Abstract

In recent years there have been calls for a revisioning of existing geographical research on air travel mobilities (Adey et al. 2007; Cwerner et al. 2009; Pirie 2009). What first seemed apparent was that the aviation world had remained the subject of sophisticated econometric models and policy analysis, historical geographies of infrastructure development, local government politicking, and other well-trodden concerns such as airport protests and environmental disputes, issues which had resumed once more in the face of government deregulation of airports and a decline in the belief of the promise of flight (Corn 1983). The airport had seemed to be one of the key sites of focus for a growing body of work finding both dissatisfaction and fascination in the apparent banality of air travel and its pseudo globalized spaces.