Coordinating mobile life

Abstract

In the richer parts of the world, where social networks are stretched out and distant connections are common, it is increasingly difficult to meet up spontaneously. Meetings have to be coordinated spatially and temporally in advance. Organising co- presence with significant others is demanding and complex especially as networks typically do not overlap much. This article thus discusses the changing nature of arrangements to meet. In particularly it discusses some shifts in those systems of coordination. We will show that there have been some striking changes in the methods of coordination – we describe the shift as that from punctuality effected through clock time to a negotiated fluid coordination effected through mobile communications. We consider how the greater spatial scale and personalisation of networks, makes more important those ‘coordination systems’ that facilitate travel and make important meetings realised. Travel is thus not merely about ‘getting there’ but of arriving at the right time. We explore via some original research how travel is not so much a question of movement as of spacing and timing. We examine shifts in the nature of those coordination systems that enable travel through time-space and which result in intermittent attendance at meetings and at events, for business, for professional life, for friendship, for families. We deploy the concept of ‘network capital’.