This issue of new formations leads with three essays edited by Tim Cresswell, on the contemporary fascination with all things mobile. Mobilities on a world scale, whether chosen or necessitated, have become one of the defining features of a global economy. Images of mobility provide some of postmodern theory"s most salient metaphors. Questioning the sense of freedom implicit in many commentaries on travel and movement, the essays resist abstract theorizations to look at the production of different kinds of mobility. Using examples that include the migration of Mexican agricultural workers to California"s Central Valley and the new immigration controls implemented by the EU, they seek to argue that the material consequences of mobility are often a far cry from the pleasures and privileges of travel and tourism.