| 1. |
- Brodersen, Meike, 1986-, et al.
(author)
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Automating the first and last mile? Reframing the ‘challenges’ of everyday mobilities
- 2024
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In: Mobilities. - Abingdon : Routledge. - 1745-0101 .- 1745-011X. ; 19:1, s. 87-102
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this article, we interrogate the utility of conceptualising the ‘first and last mile’ (FLM) as a ‘challenge’ to be addressed through automated and integrated mobility services. We critically engage with the concept through a design anthropological approach which takes two steps so as: to complicate literatures that construct the FLM as a place where automated, service-based and micro-mobility innovations will engender sustainable modal choices above individual automobility; and to demonstrate how people’s situated mobility competencies and values, shape social and material realities and future imaginaries of everyday mobilities. To do so, we draw on ethnographic research into everyday mobility practices, meanings and imaginaries in a suburban neighbourhood in Sweden. We show how locally situated mobilities both challenge the spatial and temporal underpinnings of the first and last mile concept, and resist universalist technology-driven automation narratives. We argue that instead of attempting to bridge gaps in seemingly linear journeys through automated systems, there is a need to account for the practices, tensions and desires embedded in everyday mobilities. © 2023 The Author(s).
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| 2. |
- Das Neves, Bonnie, et al.
(author)
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'Being treated like an actual person' : attitudinal accessibility on the bus
- 2023
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In: Mobilities. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1745-0101 .- 1745-011X. ; 18, s. 425-444
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Whilst the essential nature of built environment accessibility has been well established in transport research, attitudinal, behavioural, and communication barriers experienced by transport users remain largely overlooked. Subtle and insidious, repetitive negative attitudes, behaviour, and communication can force disabled passengers out of the most affordable transport option available. Applying the Disability Justice Framework and a Mobility Justice approach, this study investigated disabled passengers' reported experience of bus driver attitudes, behaviours, and communication methods, and the impact of these encounters. A mixed methods cross-sectional survey and focus groups with disabled adults and support persons were conducted. An Advisory Working Group of transport accessibility advocates, all with lived experience, were engaged to oversee the study design. Participants reported that some bus drivers demonstrated ableist attitudes, discriminatory behaviour, and communication methods. Many passengers had reduced or stopped catching buses altogether due to these negative encounters, restricting their community mobility, which further impacted their quality of life. Participants' recommendations for drivers, operators, and transport authorities were thematically integrated into one statement, reinforcing the power of attitudinal access-'treat me like the person I am, who is valid; with a right to time, space and safety; listen to me, and prove you care'.
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| 3. |
- Doody, Brendan J., et al.
(author)
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Entering, enduring and exiting : the durability of shared mobility arrangements and habits
- 2022
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In: Mobilities. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1745-0101 .- 1745-011X. ; 17:4, s. 484-500
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Car sharing could support a transition away from private vehicle ownership and use. Attempts to understand participation in car sharing have primarily focused on minor and major disruptions which catalyse change in practices. This paper examines how processes of entering, continuing or exiting car sharing systems unfold in Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. Car sharing is conceptualised as an arrangement of elements assembled, adjusted and supported by events, practices and habits. Drawing on biographically-oriented household interviews, we build on and extend existing understandings of change and stability in car sharing in four ways. First, by focusing on households rather than individual users, the paper complements recent attempts to understand the decoupling of family and private-car-based mobility. Second, under-examined processes of exiting, alongside entry and continuation are considered. Third, it highlights the importance of recognising more imperceptible, gradual and continuous changes which might not necessarily coincide with a disruptive event. Fourth, habits of shared car arrangements are demonstrated to be fragile and not as deeply ingrained as those associated with ownership. Existing household practices and habits thus raise further questions about the potential for shared mobility services to disrupt the primacy of the car.
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| 4. |
- Edberg, Karin
(author)
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E-biking within a transitioning transport system: the quest for flexible mobility
- 2023
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In: Mobilities. - 1745-0101 .- 1745-011X.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Over the last few years, electrically assisted cycling, e-biking, has increased substantially worldwide. Replacing car driving for individual journeys, especially commuting, is highlighted as important to mitigate climate change, improve public health, and reduce congestion and other unwanted consequences connected to the car. Car driving, how-ever, is still the overwhelmingly dominant mode of personal transport globally and the ‘system of automobility’ permeates the whole of soci-ety. Flexibility and autonomy are considered the main reasons for the car’s dominance (Urry 2004). By analysing interviews and diaries kept by e-bikers, collected in semi-urban and urban settings in Sweden, this art-icle aims to contribute to knowledge about emerging micromobility practices such as e-biking in relation to a transport system where flexi-bility is the norm. The results show that e-biking encompasses elements that give the practice potential to both recruit and retain practitioners. By successfully combining elements of conventional cycling and car driving, it offers reliability, convenience, and flexibility. E-biking facili-tates transforming a dull commute into leisure as the rider can enjoy the sensuous and reflective aspects of the journey. At the same time, through that squeezing of time, it does not challenge prevailing struc-tures but rather maintains the time-space of automobility
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| 5. |
- Emanuel, Martin, 1977-
(author)
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Leisure walking in the original compact city : senses, distinction, and rhythms of the bourgeois promenade
- 2023
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In: Mobilities. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1745-0101 .- 1745-011X. ; , s. 1-19
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The ‘compact city’ implies a return to the urban morphology of the nineteenth-century city, one in which most people walked, predominantly for utilitarian purposes. This article, however, details a leisure practice—the bourgeois promenade—as it unfolded in Stockholm. Employing a diverse set of texts and visual sources the article seeks to understand how this genteel urban practice was enabled and performed in the midst of a growing working-class population with which they shared the streets. It suggests that new street lighting and smoother pavements redirected vision from the ground to the people around, opening up for walking practices that foregrounded the visual over other senses—one being the bourgeois promenade. It further highlights the multiple rhythms of the promenade and the upper middle class’ efforts to create hierarchies of walking on city pavements and in urban parks. In sum, the article shows that leisure mobility was central to the very idea of nineteenth century urban life. Meanwhile, its exclusive character cautions against the one-sided imaginaries of strolling and consumption in today’s endeavours to recreate the compact city.
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| 6. |
- Gössling, Stefan
(author)
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Extending the theoretical grounding of mobilities research : transport psychology perspectives
- 2023
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In: Mobilities. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1745-0101 .- 1745-011X. ; 18:2, s. 167-183
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper reconsiders the new mobilities paradigm and its relevance for the understanding of transport systems and behaviour. It argues that the mobilities field will gain from more systematically drawing on conceptual and empirical insights from psychology to complement insights as mostly derived from sociology, geography, innovation studies, anthropology, cultural studies and continental philosophy. Focused on the car as one of the most dominant objects of individual consumption, it examines psychology epistemologies that are different from those that prevail in the mobilities literature. Transport systems shape and are shaped by social and personal identities, fears and anxieties, trauma and phobia; aggression and rebellion; and the search for community and companions. These aspects have been debated in the mobilities literature, but transport psychology investigates the more fundamental motives and conditions underlying the systems, processes and practices that shape transport behaviour. This paper discusses interrelationships and common ground between the mobilities and psychology literatures, and elaborates on the specific contributions made by social, evolutionary and clinical psychology.
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| 7. |
- Hellberg, Sofie, 1979, et al.
(author)
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Governmentalities of automobility in times of climate change: competing logics of circulation and imaginaries of the (im)possible
- 2024
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In: Mobilities. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1745-0101 .- 1745-011X. ; 19:4, s. 773-788
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- If we are to achieve climate change targets, transport systems need to transform. This article is concerned with the prospects of challenging the regime of automobility in urban areas. It employs a governmentality framework, alongside theories of automobility, in order to analyse mobility governmentalities in Gothenburg, Sweden. Gothenburg is an interesting case in the context of reducing car use given its identity as a ‘car city.’ Despite this, Gothenburg has high ambitions in terms of reducing car traffic. Reaching these goals are however associated with challenges: prognoses predict a continued increase in car traffic, and political acceptance is viewed as an obstacle. The article’s findings are based on semi-structured interviews with public officials and stakeholders, zooming in on (1) conflicting spatialities and temporalities (2) competing logics of circulation and pace and (3) mobility imaginaries of the (im)possible. We argue that while there are new logics entering urban mobility governmentalities as an effect of the climate transition, their possibilities to affect material change are confined because the movement and circulation of ‘people and things,’ ultimately represented by the private car, are closely tied to the way that freedom is exercised, understood and manifested in contemporary liberal societies.
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| 8. |
- Hellberg, Sofie, 1979, et al.
(author)
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Governmentalities of automobility in times of climate change: competing logics of circulation and imaginaries of the (im)possible
- 2024
-
In: Mobilities. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1745-0101 .- 1745-011X.
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- If we are to achieve climate change targets, transport systems need to transform. This article is concerned with the prospects of challenging the regime of automobility in urban areas. It employs a governmentality framework, alongside theories of automobility, in order to analyse mobility governmentalities in Gothenburg, Sweden. Gothenburg is an interesting case in the context of reducing car use given its identity as a ‘car city.’ Despite this, Gothenburg has high ambitions in terms of reducing car traffic. Reaching these goals are however associated with challenges: prognoses predict a continued increase in car traffic, and political acceptance is viewed as an obstacle. The article’s findings are based on semi-structured interviews with public officials and stakeholders, zooming in on (1) conflicting spatialities and temporalities (2) competing logics of circulation and pace and (3) mobility imaginaries of the (im)possible. We argue that while there are new logics entering urban mobility governmentalities as an effect of the climate transition, their possibilities to affect material change are confined because the movement and circulation of ‘people and things,’ ultimately represented by the private car, are closely tied to the way that freedom is exercised, understood and manifested in contemporary liberal societies.
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| 9. |
- Henriksson, Malin, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Questioning mobility ideals - the value of proximity for residents in socially deprived urban areas in Sweden
- 2021
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In: Mobilities. - : Routledge. - 1745-0101 .- 1745-011X. ; 16:5, s. 792-808
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Despite discourses of contemporary high-mobility, a life characterised by high mobility is in sharp contrast to many people's experiences and personal preferences. Previous research has shown that mobility and transport opportunities are unevenly distributed in society. The paper explores how young unemployed people and low-skilled care workers in two Swedish urban municipalities prefer to travel less and stay local rather than undergoing time-consuming and expensive public transport trips. The results show that various temporal and spatial restrictions are significant regarding the extent to which public transport can cater for mobility needs, and that transport opportunities are part of an individual's opportunity to be socially included. The results indicate that other policy areas, such as the labour market policy and the public health policy, are equally important for social inclusion.
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| 10. |
- Ihlström, Jonas, 1981-, et al.
(author)
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Immoral and irrational cyclists? Exploring the practice of cycling on the pavement
- 2021
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In: Mobilities. - : ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD. - 1745-0101 .- 1745-011X. ; 16:3, s. 388-403
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Cycling on the pavement is commonly seen in urban environments despite often being prohibited. This study explores this practice by analysing cycling on pavements in the wider socio-technical context in which it occurs. Using data from two field studies and one questionnaire study, as well as applying a Social Practice Theory (SPT) based analytical approach, the study explores the frequency of cycling on the pavement. The results show that riding on the pavement is common among cyclists. Three main configurations of meaning, material and competence constitutes this practice which is summarised as follows: avoiding the space of the car, increasing smoothness of the ride and unclear infrastructure design. Cycling on the pavement can be regarded as a way of managing safety and risk, seeking more efficient and comfortable paths of travel, as well as the outcome of perceiving the infrastructure as ambiguous. Overall, the study argues that cycling on the pavement is a consequence of skewed power relations between different modes of transport, as well as policies, urban planning and infrastructure not harmonising with demands for safe and smooth travel by cyclists.
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