Exploring the Social Face of Urban Mobility: Daily Mobility as Part of the Social Structure in Spain LUIS A. CAMARERO and JESÚS OLIVA Abstract This article considers the social aspects of daily mobility, which is studied as a social product, based on significant family strategies and social practices. Our analysis shows the importance of variables such as the lifecycle of households, class trends and family networks as well as class, gender and generational sub-cultures. The different forms of daily mobility are seen to be linked to other social strategies (residential, labour, sociability, etc.) that create a varying range of social situations. Urban and mobility policies, urban dispersion, greater automobile use and new trends in the socio-technical organization of cities exert a great influence on these unequal social positions, promoting new forms of exclusion and social risks. Based on the study of a medium-sized city in Southern Europe (Pamplona-Iruñea, the regional capital of Navarra), which is developing fast from a concentrated pattern to one of residential dispersion based on greater automobile use, an analysis is carried out into how family mobility strategies tie in with different sociological profiles. The study aims to provide interesting theoretical and methodological reflections on mobility that will be of use to professionals, institutions and civil movements working in the field of mobility regulation. Mobility and social inequality in the dispersed city Introduction Mobility has condensed the meanings of modernity into a social imagery (speed, acceleration) that reveals a particular ideology relating to the way we act on the world. The processes of individuation and modern urban planning, for example, have focused on the circulation of the individual with no concern for place or others (Berman, 1982; Sennett, 1994). Mobility can be seen as a strategic, organized process of a socio-political nature, and thus poses questions regarding regulation and the success or failure of modernization, etc. Much of what today is considered characteristic of modern life or quality of life is associated with mobility practices. Mobility is considered necessary in a society in which we require simultaneously more environments, social relations and roles (Sheller and Urry, 2000; 2003), to such an extent that it impacts on the structure This research project would not have been possible without the funding received from the Government of Navarre. We would like to express special thanks to the journal’s referees whose advice was essential in establishing the approach adopted in the article. The study was also inspired by a visit to the Centre for Mobilities Research at Lancaster University. However, the considerations set out in the article are the sole responsibility of the authors. Volume 32.2 June 2008 344–62 International Journal of Urban and Regional Research DOI:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00778.x © 2008 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2008 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published by Blackwell Publishing. 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA