Mobility time Flow: The autistic view on crip spacetime

Abstract

This article addresses the need to bridge the geography of mental health with mobility studies by proposing the use of crip temporalities as a connecting framework. This approach draws on my lived experience as an individual with Asperger's syndrome, diagnosed in adulthood. The article aims to explore the mutual relationship between spatiotemporal contexts and my emotional experiences in everyday life. Using autoethnography, I reflectively analyzed diary entries written over the course of two years, seeking interconnections between emotionality, place, and time. The result is the use of new concept: Mobility Time Flow, which represents the process of experiencing my time while moving through space. I use three situations (walking through the city centre, travelling on a train and crossing the road via a pedestrian crossing) and one context (being in control of my time) to explain how Mobility Time Flow functions emotionally in my everyday life. I experience the first three situations very negatively, whereas I feel positive emotions in the context of controlling my own time.