Lo social como movilidad: usos y presencia del teléfono móvil

Abstract

This paper explores the notion of flow and its imaginaries related to mobile phone use and presence, building on the results of a longitudinal study based on fieldwork carried out in London, Madrid and Paris in 2002 and 2004. The study of this device is particularly suited to the sociological analyses considered as the study of mobilities, because they help to reveal social flows and mobilities that existed already, while they contribute to develop and maintain flows of information, communications, affects and activities. They have the capacity to blur distinctions between ostensibly discrete domains and categories and to mix heterogeneous social worlds and, at the same time, they act as symbolic markers and take part in different codification tasks. These aspects are analysed and described in relationship with the following topics: social and health fears attched to phone communiaction, the implications of the possibility of continuos contact, the mutual shaping of bodies and devices and the role of mobile phones in the modulation of public presence and the constitution of virtual presences.