MRG

The key focus of the Mobilities Research Group (MRG) is to better understand travel mobilities for Ireland, Europe and worldwide.

For Dr Frank Walle, Environmental Issues Commissioner for Lufthansa Group: movement is part of our very existence. It means development … In today’s global market, the daily flood of information and pictures of unknown worlds make us curious and appeal to our desire to experience these worlds personally – and so to travel (Walle, 1999).  Mobilities have become a symbol of the contemporary civilisation. Tourism is about mobility and movements of people (Cole 1998). The terms tourism, travel and transport are very often used as synonyms or as interrelated and interdependent components of one and the same social and economic trend – the trend to continuously increasing mobility on a global scale.

Mobilities nowadays relate to personal freedom and social development. As individual space-time trajectories shift, this leads to greater social and economic interaction in various, often transnational, domains. Individuals may develop close relationships to multiple localities through migration, second homes or employment. The objective of the MRG will be to support, focus and develop active research staff in the area of mobilities. The aim is to build critical mass that will result in:

• – greater engagement by staff in mobilities research
• – increase the number of mobilities research students
• – increase the number of successful mobilities-related research funding applications
• – increase the output of peer-reviewed publications in high-quality journals

The MRG will establish clear linkages across the schools in IT Sligo; within the CUA and the West/North-West cluster-based Wild Atlantic Way Research group; and with the University of Ulster.