Wilbur Zelinsky's 1971 paper in Geographical Review entitled the “Hypothesis of the Mobility Transition” was both forward‐looking and offered innovative ideas regarding human geographic mobility. One of the most interesting aspects of the paper was a set of predictions for mobility in a “future superadvanced society”. Many of these predictions have now come to pass, including a general decline in international and internal migration and residential change, the increasing regulation of migration ‐ especially internally, and the possibility that the widespread adoption of information and communication technologies has impacted human geographic mobility. Hence, this essay looks at the mobility transition not as an obsolete frame of reference but as a prescient, pliable, and adaptable framework which not only informs the study of human geographic mobility today but also, perhaps, even into the future.

Wilbur Zelinsky 1971 年在《地理评论》上发表的题为“流动性转变的假设”的论文既具有前瞻性，又提供了有关人文地理流动性的创新想法。该论文最有趣的方面之一是对“未来超先进社会”中流动性的一系列预测。其中许多预测现已成为现实，包括国际和国内移民和居住变化的普遍下降、移民监管的加强（尤其是国内移民），以及信息和通信技术的广泛采用影响人类地理流动性的可能性。因此，本文将流动性转变视为一个有先见之明、灵活且适应性强的框架，而不是一个过时的参考框架，它不仅为当今的人文地理流动性研究提供信息，甚至可能为未来的研究提供信息。