7. Global Change and Human Mobility in the Anthropocene

In a period of increasing large-scale human effects on the planet, the named Anthropocene, the mobility turn has emerged as a crucial paradigm for social sciences. Since the end of the twentieth century, human mobility, associated with the globalisation process, has become a constitutive element of most of the social and economic changes, establishing new forms of relationship between space and society. Thus, persistent socioeconomic inequalities, armed conflicts, the nexus between migration and development, and the complexity of the drivers of mobility make Geography an essential science for interpreting the relationship between mobility and social sustainability. A good example of this is the importance mobility acquires for young people and their identity formation, as well as the prominence of tourism flows. In the opposite direction, in post-pandemic times, the (im)mobility forced new interpretations of this paradigm due to its restructuring role in a changing world involved in new political tensions and environmental reconfigurations.