Changing Patterns of Mobility? Peak Car and Assonant Dynamics of Commuting, Leisure Mobility and Residential (Im)Mobility in Switzerland

Organizers :
Katharina Manderscheid (Universität Luzern, Soziologisches Seminar) Vincent Kaufmann (Laboratoire de Sociologie Urbaine, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

Several international comparative studies highlight the relatively low degree of inter-regional residential mobility but the relatively large amount of inter-city commuting within Switzerland (cf. Abraham/Nisic 2007; Viry et al. 2008; Vincent-Geslin/Kaufmann 2012; Manderscheid 2013, Ravalet et al. forthcoming 2015). According to the Federal Office of Statistics, the average distance travelled daily is still increasing and amounts to 36.7 km per person in 2010 (BfS 2013). Yet, less than one quarter of these distances are travelled for work reasons but 40% are subsumed under the category of leisure travel. What is more, the formerly continuous increase of private motorised traffic seems to have come to a standstill or, in cities, started to reverse, an observation which is at present found in many European and North American cities and which is discussed intensely under the label of "peak car" (Metz 2013; Stokes 2013). However, what is still missing are more systematic empirical analyses contributing to an understanding of the dynamics around this observed phenomena of increasing daily mobility but declining car usage.

Against this background, the suggested workshop intends to call for empirical contributions around the following issues:

. qualitative in depth and/or quantitative comparative analyses of changing patterns of daily mobility and modal split

. on the interrelations of residential (im)mobility, accessiblity and daily mobility patterns, like the growth of a culture of urbanism (gentrification), the re-discovery of local lifestyles and the spreading of alternative modes of transportation like car sharing, cycling and public transportation

. unequal patterns of mobilities along the lines of age, gender, class and urban/rural differences

. the relevance of post-material orientations around ecology, local communities, quality of public spaces

The workshop language is English only.

Mobility

For the Mobile Lives Forum, mobility is understood as the process of how individuals travel across distances in order to deploy through time and space the activities that make up their lifestyles. These travel practices are embedded in socio-technical systems, produced by transport and communication industries and techniques, and by normative discourses on these practices, with considerable social, environmental and spatial impacts.

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Car sharing

Car sharing is the pooling of one or several vehicles for different trips at different times. Three types of car sharing exist: commercial car sharing, peer-to-peer car sharing and “informal” sharing between individuals.

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Please submit your contribution (around 250 words) before 13 of march 2015 online via http://www3.unil.ch/wpmu/sss-congres2015/en/call-for-paper-paper-proposal-workshop/

or  by email to:

katharina.manderscheid@unilu.ch

vincent.kaufmann@epfl.ch