Mobility: Power, Discipline, Control, Privilege, Capitalism and Hegemony

Mobility is the ability to move or be moved freely and easily. 

In other words, go where you want of your own free will.

Mobility is not to be confused with mobilities. 

Mobilities are the means upon which you travel, such as a motor vehicle, aircraft, train, bus and the like.

Mobility implies freedom of choice and access. 

Concealed within this complex nexus of science and rapidly changing context is immobility. 

The inability, lack of options, lack of access or lack of rights to travel, move or be mobile. 

Mobility has been the measurement of democracies for centuries. 

Immobility has been indicative of class systems across all political landscapes for centuries also. 

COVID-19, local epidemics and global pandemics bring mobility and immobility into perspective. 

Independent decisions, restrictions, freedoms and mobility are impacted.

Trade-offs, calculations, expert analysis, modelling, ethics and forecasts determine mobility. 

• Are you free to travel? 
• Is your immobility for the greater good?
• Did you have a voice or a choice? 
• What freedoms have you lost?
• Are mobility and immobility rules evenly and consistently applied? 

Hegemony is the political, economic or military predominance or control of one state over others. 

In other words, one class or group of people determining the freedoms and rights of others. 

In a meritocracy, this power or control is limited to the ruling, influential, educated or wealthy. 

Mobility becomes a class identifier and status. 

The poor, underrepresented, unemployed or alien demographics are immobile, not by choice. 

The privileged, educated, wealthy, business orientated and ruling class are mobile.

Class layers emerge such as the class of mobilities, measured by use of public transport or the type of car/flight one takes. 

People will surrender themselves to increasingly onerous procedures, humiliation and rituals to remain included.

Artefacts of inclusion and exclusion become commonplace. 

Visual cues such as passports, frequent flyer status, manufacturer logos on motor vehicles and luggage in addition to services and channels for processing remind and classify us all.

Codification and classification, titles, status, determinations and inclusions prevail.

Privileged, wealthy or included classes receive special, express treatment such as priority processing or exemption from restrictions.

The industrial age expanded individual and community mobility with industry and engines across distances and with volumes not seen before in human history. 

Immobility remained a reminder to the less privileged or lower classes. 

Mobilities became displays of sovereign wealth and national pride. 

Airlines were created and managed by the state. 

Over time, free-market forces took control and began representing their community or consumers. 

Hegemonies have become commonplace in the tourism, travel and business mobility sectors. 

These economic powers influence political, legislative, and social policies. 

Individuals subject themselves to variations of control, discipline and power for continued inclusion and access to mobilities. 

The immobile remain static and indentured, often servicing or working in industries contributing to these mobile elites. 

Entire geographical locations, cities, countries and cultures have reorientated to attract and retain these economic forces and mobile citizens. 

Humans will de-prioritise health, safety, security and rights for economic rewards. 

A change will evoke emotions, resistance. 

Narratives of conspiracies emerge. 

Push and pull forces act on multivariate actors. 

Simplified origin and destination classification become normalised. 

The 4th industrial revolution has altered the concepts of space, time and mobility via technological mobilities. 

A corporeal entity (human body) can now occupy multiple time and space constructs. 

An individual can be physically located in one country while using a device to communicate with another person or location separated by distance but simultaneously coexisting in time. 

That same individual can be viewing images and desires in another location entirely via social media and conceptualising yet another location or experience altogether, all at the same time. 

Singularity and multiplicity coexist. 

Artificial intelligence, machine learning and technology facilitate these interactions and exchanges. 

Mobility in time and space across multiple channels and frontiers becomes further enmeshed with invisible and intangible influences of power, discipline, control, privilege, capitalism and hegemony.  

State actors seek to shape, regulate and determine rights. 

The technology, infrastructure and resources required to access these pathways and experiences become new inclusive/exclusive mobilities. 

Affordability, wealth, accessibility and capability create barriers to entry. 

Technology, data, infrastructure and entry devices are not evenly distributed within society, locations or globally. 

Digital, technology and knowledge elites emerge. 

Capitalism and free-market forces expand beyond industrial age economics, politics, sociology and cultural boundaries in both physical and cyberspaces. 

This is not an Orwellian recap or conceptualisation. 

This is today. 

In the time it took for you to read and contemplate this offering, it has changed again. 

Complexity, network forces, behaviour and countless other intrinsic and extrinsic 

Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty can be conceptualised by many.

You don't need to understand quantum mechanics to appreciate that in the time it took you to consider or measure the phenomena, it has changed again and again and again. 

Your measurement is outdated the moment you sought to measure something.

Complementary variables influence and limit your accuracy.

Simple, applied, and real-world tests of this hypothesis and phenomena are possible every hour of every day. 

• Try boarding public transport without money. 
• Try accessing an international airline flight without a ticket or passport. 
• Try sitting in First Class without the required approval, privilege or entitlements.
• Try using a business lounge or Fastrack without inclusion.
• Try crossing a border or restricted area without approval. 
• Try trespassing on privately owned property.
• Try ignoring restrictions and constraints placed upon you or your community.
• Try relocating geographically without money, resources or transport. 
• Try going to school or source food hundreds of kilometres away without transportation means. 

You are likely to discover that mobility has an always will be subject to invisible and agree upon factors of Power, Discipline, Control, Privilege, Capitalism and Hegemony.

Tony Ridley

Enterprise Security Risk Management and Security Science