Flying through Ash Clouds: Improvising Aeromobilities in Singapore and Australasia

Scholars have recently been concerned with how the aviation industry is assembled through a series of tightly coupled processes and relations that render it fragile and prone to disruptions. While not disagreeing with this view, this paper explores some alternative ways aviation can be reunderstood as something more emergent and adaptable. Two ash cloud events, in Singapore and Australasia, are elucidated to show how breakdowns in air travel seldom unfold without intervening human actions and spontaneous reformations. Suggesting that aerial systems are thus continually renewed, this paper seeks to recognize in (aero)mobilities their potential for improvisation, even as it acknowledges their riskiness.