Social and territorial structures form intricate relations that transcend a social stratification or spatial focus. Territorial features and geographic displacements are structuring principles for society, as societal features and social change effect the structure and use of territory. Based on our examination of the conceptual and theoretical links between spatial and social mobility, we propose a concept that represents a new form of inequality. Termed ‘motility’, this construct describes the potential and actual capacity of goods, information or people to be mobile both geographically and socially. Three major features of motility — access, competence and appropriation — are introduced. In this article, we focus on conceptual and theoretical contributions of motility. In addition, we suggest a number of possible empirical investigations. Motility presents us with an innovative perspective on societal changes without prematurely committing researchers to work within structuralist or postmodern perspectives. More generally, we propose to revisit the fluidification debate in the social sciences with a battery of questions that do not begin and end with whether or not society is in flux. Instead, we introduce a field of research that takes advantage of the insights from competing paradigms in order to reveal the social dynamics and consequences of displacements in geographic and social space. Les structures sociales et territoriales forment des relations complexes qui dépassent toute stratification sociale ou convergence spatiale. Les caractéristiques territoriales et déplacements géographiques sont, pour la société, des principes structurants, tout comme les caractéristiques sociétales et le changement social font naître la structure et l'usage d'un territoire. A partir d'un examen des liens conceptuels et théoriques entre les mobilités spatiale et sociale, cet article propose un concept traduisant une nouvelle forme d'inégalité: appelé‘motilité’, il décrit le potentiel et l'aptitude réelle des marchandises, informations ou individus àêtre mobiles sur un plan tant géographique que social. Trois traits essentiels de la motilité— accès, compétence et appropriation — sont présentés. Si l'article s'attache aux contributions conceptuelles et théoriques de la motilité, il suggère aussi plusieurs axes possibles d'études empiriques. La motilité offre une perspective novatrice sur les changements sociétaux, sans engager prématurément les travaux de recherches sur des rails structuralistes ou post‐modernes. Plus généralement, il s'agit de revisiter le débat sur la fluidification en sciences sociales à l'aide d'une batterie de questions qui, ni au début ni à la fin, ne demande si la société est fluctuante ou non. En revanche, l'article propose un domaine de recherches qui exploite les réflexions tirées de paradigmes concurrents afin de révéler la dynamique sociale et les conséquences des déplacements dans l'espace géographique et social.

In modern society, spatial mobility is highly valued with its relationship to individual freedom (freedom to travel anywhere at anytime, freedom to choose one's relationships, freedom of residential location, etc.). Spatial mobility has become so crucial that it has become an established ideology, putting pressure on individuals to expand their mobility and be able to adapt to spatial changes of living and working conditions (delocalisation of jobs, closing of local public services, etc.). In this context, the capacity to be mobile, or the notion of motility, is a deciding factor of social integration. How can motility be characterised? Which aspects must be taken into account in conducting a comparative analysis of an individual's motility? How does motility constitute a factor of social differentiation? Our article aims to render the concept of motility operational. Building on an exploratory qualitative study, we will explain the factors defining an individual's potential to be mobile within a geographic space in the perspective of the organisation of daily life. Three aspects will be discussed: the access rights portfolios each individual has developed, their aptitudes for mobility, and their representations that define the cognitive appropriation of transportation supply. The rationales explaining why and how the motility of individuals is created or unaffected are also considered. Finally, our article demonstrates that motility is indeed a form of capital, similar to economic, social, or cultural capital, present as a factor in social differentiation that modern sociology cannot disregard.

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Is it possible to discern correlations between past and present urban policies? Do path dependencies exist at the urban level? If so, how do they differ from other links between the past and present? A preview of the literature dealing with dependencies and urban change, a presentation of the research methodology and an examination of the historical archives of six European cities in France, Germany and Switzerland enable us to identify three features common to both past and present transport and urban planning policies—namely, contingency, reproduction and innovation.