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OPINIONS

“Being anchored to be agile”: a call for interdisciplinarity in mobility research

Dominique Joye

23/06/2020

Following the publication on the Mobile Lives Forum website of the roundtable "Spatial mobilities, the origins of a field," Professor Dominique Joye, an expert on social sciences research methodologies, further discusses the issue of interdisciplinarity in current research. He reminds us both of the virtues of hybridization for scientific research and the importance of disciplinary roots to take advantage of it. Behind this apparent paradox, which can be summed up by the phrase “being anchored to be agile,” lies perhaps one of the keys for developing research in a “boundary” field such as mobility.

Thematics : Theories

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NEW VOICES

France’s National Low-Carbon Strategy: Can it work without slowing down?

Aurélien Bigo

18/06/2020

In order to become carbon neutral by 2050, France has adopted an ambitious roadmap that concerns all sectors of the economy. Of particular importance is passenger transport since the National Low Carbon Strategy (SNBC, for Stratégie nationale bas-carbone) aims to make it almost entirely carbon-free. Aurélien Bigo draws on the historical evolution of carbon emissions to assess the SNBC in light of the various prospective scenarios. He asks whether the government’s scenario can do without slowing down travel to properly address the urgency of the energy transition.

Thematics : Policies

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RESEARCH NOTES

Dialogue on mobility between F. Dureau, P. Lannoy, J.-P. Orfeuil and T. Ramadier. 2 : A multidisciplinary perspective

Françoise Dureau, Pierre Lannoy, Jean-Pierre Orfeuil, Thierry Ramadier

28/05/2020

In the second part of the round table held for the 16th edition of the MSFS symposium “Spatial Mobilities, Methodologies for Data Collection and Analysis,” Françoise Dureau, Pierre Lannoy, Jean-Pierre Orfeuil and Thierry Ramadier discussed, from the vantage point of their own specialty, how researchers from different scientific disciplines collaborate. What makes interdisciplinarity in mobilities research in France possible, and what are the obstacles?

Thematics : Theories

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RESEARCH NOTES

Dialogue on mobility between F. Dureau, P. Lannoy, J.-P. Orfeuil and T. Ramadier. 1 : The origins of a field

Françoise Dureau, Pierre Lannoy, Jean-Pierre Orfeuil, Thierry Ramadier

28/05/2020

As part of the 16th edition of the MSFS symposium “Spatial Mobilities, Methodologies for Data Collection and Analysis,” four experts (Françoise Dureau, Pierre Lannoy, Thierry Ramadier and Jean-Pierre Orfeuil) participated in a round table on the evolution of the field of spatial mobility . Coming from different backgrounds and adopting different theoretical perspectives, these researchers took a retrospective look at how mobility emerged as a research topic in their respective fields. The discussion shed new light on the disciplinary singularities and transdisciplinary developments shaping mobilities research.

Thematics : Theories

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OPINIONS

One foot in the city, one foot in the village: the invisible mobility of urban workers in India

Matias Echanove, Rahul Srivastava

19/05/2020

The lockdown in India caused a humanitarian catastrophe that could have been avoided: several million people suddenly left the cities for the hinterland, sometimes without resources or means of transport. These workers and their families, who are often considered migrants, lead lives that are split between the city, where they can find work, and their village of origin, which is sometimes over a thousand kilometers away. Their mobility is invisible to statistics, and now is the time to recognize it in order to improve their living conditions.

Thematics : Lifestyles, Policies

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OPINIONS

Video-communications, videoconferencing and the lockdown

Christian Licoppe

13/05/2020

Up until now, the use of video-communication was fairly marginal, but with the lockdown period, most of us seem to have adopted it with disconcerting ease. It seems however to be used as a poor substitute for physical face-to-face meetings that would otherwise be allowed by travel. So the question is: are these interactions enabled by digital tools, while different, somehow inferior to those allowed by travel? How could video-presence make us question our mobility practices and rethink the political norms that govern them?

Thematics : Lifestyles

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OPINIONS

On global counter-productivity. The critique of mobility and the coronavirus crisis

Alexandre Rigal

22/04/2020

At the beginning of April 2020, more than half the world's population was on lockdown. It has therefore become more necessary than ever to question the role of our global mobility system. In view of this, the critiques of mobility that arose in the 1970s provide safe guidance. They offer both an insight on a particular factor in the expansion of this epidemic that has now become a pandemic - the transportation system - and avenues to plan for our transportation system after the crisis.

Thematics : Lifestyles, Theories

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OPINIONS

Mobility: the lifeblood of modernity and the virus that threatens to undo it

Tim Cresswell

18/03/2020

In my 2006 book, *On the Move: Mobility in the Modern Western World*, I wrote that mobility was the lifeblood of mobility and the virus that threatens to undo it. The idea was further developed in reflections on the concept of turbulence in the text that follows, also written a few years ago, without knowing that it would resonate particularly today with the unprecedented situation that has arisen since the appearance of the coronavirus.

Thematics : Lifestyles, Theories

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OPINIONS

Ecotourism: Is my flying saving the planet?

Javier Caletrío

10/03/2020

Tourism and wildlife conservation organisations promote ecotourism as a conservation, development and educational tool. Your holiday in exotic landscapes, they argue, could make the world a better place. But as the demand for ecotourism and its associated CO2 emissions grow, is flying to distant places compatible with the international commitment to avert 1.5 or more of global heating?

Thematics : Lifestyles, Policies

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OPINIONS

A Proposal for a Post-automobile Future

Maurie Cohen

13/12/2019

It is becoming apparent that widespread diffusion of autonomous vehicles and other innovative mobility technologies is going to take longer than champions have promised. The current pause provides an opportunity to reassess options and consider alternatives that have been relegated to the sidelines by the recent rush to embrace smart-city visions unlikely to enhance capabilities for human flourishing in a carbon-constrained world. This article considers how we might envisage and create urban futures that are substantially less reliant on automobiles.

Thematics : Policies

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SOUTHERN DIARIES

Between neighbourhood life and access to the city: the successful integration of Medellín's favelas

Camille Reiss

30/09/2019

In Medellín, the informal neighbourhoods of the north were recognized in the early 1990s and have since been the subject of regeneration campaigns to integrate them into the city. One of the most emblematic projects is the Metrocable, which allows these old enclave neighborhoods to reach the city center. However, when we look more closely, we see that their inhabitants have strong local ties. The right to the city - or at least to access the city center - enabled by the cable car therefore appears to be only one component of a broader integration policy, aimed at developing local life and economy and reducing the need to move so much. So what if, faced with the injunction to mobility, the…

Thematics : Lifestyles, Policies

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OPINIONS

The spatial underpinnings of the revolutionary protests in Algiers

Ghaliya Djelloul, Aniss Mouad Mezoued

01/07/2019

Since February 22, 2019, when Algerians started to mobilize within the public space, the political scene has been taken over by weekly mass protests, described by the press as “tsunamis”, in the urban centers of the country’s large and smaller cities. Until now, the attention has been on the popular movement’s demands and successive gains, largely ignoring the spatial forms of the mobilization despite this being central to the current rebirth of civil society. Indeed, the daily fight to (re)claim public spaces has been the whole point of this uprising.

Thematics : Lifestyles, Policies

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