Into the unknown: mobilities and uncertainty

This special issue explores the intricate relationship between mobility and uncertainty as co-constitutive phenomena. Human movements are increasingly shaped by structural inequalities and intersecting crises—economic, environmental, and political—while also punctuated by sudden events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which revealed the embeddedness of (im)mobilities in uncertainty. Drawing on ethnographic research, the introduction situates uncertainty not as a given but as socially and politically produced through global mobility regimes, infrastructural arrangements, and governance strategies that arbitrate human (im)mobilities. Uncertainty emerges as both a constraint and a catalyst for action, fostering creativity, resistance, and speculation about the future. The issue addresses three core questions: How are mobilities employed to navigate uncertain circumstances? How does uncertainty act as a limitation or driver of movement? And how is uncertainty negotiated across mobility trajectories? By examining diverse cases—from clandestine migration along the Balkan route and precarious journeys from West Africa to Europe, to post-socialist road infrastructures in Russia, tourism labor in the Swiss Alps, and bureaucratic hurdles faced by skilled migrants—the contributions reveal uncertainty as a governing mechanism and a lived experience. Ultimately, embracing uncertainty can become a deliberate strategy for transformation, challenging structural constraints and opening new possibilities for the future.