Mobile School Cartographies: A Methodological Tool for Exploring School, Urban, and Digital Mobilities With Youth

Abstract

This article is based on a research project in which we analyzed young people's school experience through the lens of the mobilities paradigm proposed by SHELLER and URRY (2006). Socio-educational scholars often regard as "school-related" only that which happens within the walls of educational institutions, promoting a fragmented view of youth experience. Our research goal was to explore mobilities in the sub-worlds of youth socialization that, in an intertwined manner, shape their school experience. To this end, we designed a qualitative methodological tool —based on cartographic work—called mobile school cartographies, tailored to capture youth mobilities through territorial, school and digital realms. Throughout this paper, we approach the tool's design and implementation process, providing details on the theoretical grounding that informed our decision-making. In the discussion section, we argue that this tool is useful to move towards an integrated approach of overlapping mobilities and to account for the diversity of youth experiences addressing certain limitations inherent in methodological approaches—such as surveys, biographical methods, or ethnographic studies—commonly adopted for investigating youth mobilities.