On The Move: Reflections on Using Mobile Methods in Rural Areas of China and India

The article is based on two ethnographic research studies conducted in the interior rural provinces of China and India. The article offers insights into the epistemological and methodological potentials of mobile methods, such as walking and transit interviews, through empirical analysis from extensive fieldwork in rural areas. The article’s central premise extends the understanding of mobile methods in the diverse socio-spatial dynamics of rural environments. As a corollary, it shows how mobile methods can effectively streamline these dynamics in rural settings by providing insights into the intergenerational and spatiotemporal identities of people. The article also offers methodological insights into the use of mobile methods in qualitative research centred around rural areas, particularly in the limited context of the Global South. The article illustrates how mobile methods can become dynamic, contextual and flexible data-generation tools in sync with the natural rural landscape and its sociocultural setup. The conceptual basis for using mobile methods is explained throughout the article, using fieldwork narratives and observations enriched by these methods. The article elucidates the significance of mobile methods by identifying four key themes and briefly describes the challenges involved in their on-field application. The exploration of mobile methods in this article aims to constitute movement as a spatiotemporal phenomenon and not just differential data collection tools.