Mobile worlding: Exploring the trans-urban circulation and the interconnectedness of migrants’ urban world-making practices

This short-form article considers the concept of ‘mobile worlding’ in relation to migrants’ world-making practices. Yet, instead of the conventional focus on the transnational cultural exchange between migrants’ home and host countries, this article theorizes the trans-urban circulation and interconnectedness of migrants’ urban world-making practices across cities in Europe. It reflects on how migrants’ urban world-making practices may be conceptualized as ‘practices of citation and reference in a world of inter-connected urbanism’ or a ‘mobile urbanism’ from below (McCann et al. and McCann and Ward). In this article, examples of urban world-making practices of African diaspora are discussed, highlighting the author’s own research on religious place-making in European cities, as well as other instances of ‘mobile worlding’ that are not yet conceptualized as such, for instance hip-hop and fashion.