From the street to the planet: can mobility justice unite our diverse struggles?
Mimi Sheller | Social Scientist
26 November 2019
What is mobility justice? This is the question that Mimi Sheller addresses, from the observation that if the right to mobility is a freedom to conquer, its limits are also the root of many inequalities, whether at the level of the street or on a global scale. The urban crisis, with its inequalities in terms of access to the city's transport and amenities, the migrant crisis with its population movements and the walls that contain them, the environmental crisis with the exploitation by rich countries of the raw materials of poor countries: all these issues find a common denominator in this continuous struggle for mobility. Why not conceive of mobility as a shared resource to be managed democratically?
Presentation
These videoconferences, given by experienced or up-and-coming researchers in the field of mobility, address a wide range of basic issues, from the mobility turn to mobile methods and the relocation of production. Over time, they’re intended to provide a visual encyclopedia of mobility.
Mobility in China from 1949 to the present day
13 November 2019
Jean-Philippe Béja | Chercheur
For the communist regime that established itself in Beijing in 1949, mobility was synonymous with disorder. Once in power, the Party divided the population into classes to better control it: the members of the “exploiting classes” were subject to many restrictions, while the “red” classes were tasked with monitoring them. But by 1958, State control was widespread and travel was limited for all.
The future of aviation
29 October 2019
Maurie Cohen | Chercheur
Personal air mobility seems to be moving out of the realm of science fiction and into reality, with the development of light aircrafts for private, even daily use and intended for an increasingly wide audience. Maurie Cohen, an expert in sustainability, questions this practice with regards to its environmental impact, which will surely be considerable. By what means can we overcome this contradiction between the need to ensure the planet’s future and the inexorable development of personal air mobility?
The automobile city
17 September 2019
Caroline Gallez | Urban planner
As early as the 1920s, traffic congestion and road safety in cities led to the emergence of a new expertise that became progressively institutionalized as a scientific discipline called “traffic engineering.” By systematically banking on the growth of automobility, the models that guide it have become self-fulfilling. Cars have gone hand in hand with urban extension, shaping even housing policies that favor the emergence of peri-urban spaces organized around road infrastructure.
Being a woman in the city, or the art of avoidance
18 June 2019
Anne Jarrigeon | Anthropologist
Anne Jarrigeon has studied the ways in which women have learned to deploy internalized knowledge to keep strangers at bay in everyday life, in cities that impose an image of hyper-availability. Being a mobile woman in urban space is often about how to avoid the male gaze, of men themselves, and from billboards.
The injunction to mobility
16 May 2019
Christophe Mincke | lawyer and sociologist
Christophe Mincke, who studied the emergence of mobility ideology in La société sans répit (2019, La Sorbonne), investigates the idea of mobility as a social injunction. In a society where mobility has become an end in itself, where being constantly in motion is the norm, what room is left for each individual’s aspirations? And, finally, is the ultramobility of the 21st century a source of liberation or constraint?
The weight of daily life: women facing mobility
23 April 2019
Anne Jarrigeon | Anthropologist
Making sense of mobility in a different way, properly capturing women’s experience of mobility, this is an important challenge given how the question of what characterizes women’s mobility is often insufficiently considered. Anne Jarrigeon uses multiple observational approaches, both anthropological and film-based, that enable her to directly shed light on what is at play in women’s mobility. She can then observe the two stages of this mobility - its implementation, but also its preparation – in order to identify how it is specific in terms of physical or mental constraints.
The mobility of women: a constrained freedom
23 April 2019
Anne Jarrigeon | Anthropologist
Mobility is one of the oldest freedoms claimed by women. Yet for a long time and still today, many women remain largely confined indoors and, here as elsewhere, they are very often under the control of men – even in societies that claim to be egalitarian. And for women, the experience of going out unaccompanied is a reminder that there is still much to be done. We might think that mobility is nothing but the reflection of a set of inequalities between men and women that are visible in other spheres and areas of society.
Flexible working hours: an end to the ordeal of rush hour?
09 April 2019
Emmanuel Munch | Urban planner
In the Paris region, more and more workers have working hours that are no longer explicitly fixed by the employer. Instead, they have what we call flexible working hours. According to theories in transport economics, this greater freedom given to employees should spread out people’s starting hours and therefore contribute to improving travel conditions at rush hour. But is this actually the case? Are more flexible working hours really the right solution to end the problems of rush hour congestion? Do employees with flexible schedules actually avoid the morning rush hour?
Why are free public transport initiatives gaining ground?
26 June 2018
Maxime Huré | Political scientist
In France, as is the case around the world, a growing number of cities have opted to launch free public transport initiatives. Why did they decide to offer free public transport? How do they finance it? Maxime Huré, lecturer in political science at the University of Perpignan, shares his views on the topic
The future of free public transport: Dunkirk today, Paris tomorrow?
26 June 2018
Maxime Huré | Political scientist
New users, development of activities, modal shift, etc. trialling of free public transport in Dunkirk could provide inspiration for urban areas such as Paris. Maxime Huré, lecturer in political science at the University of Perpignan, tells us why.
Does aviation have a place in a low-carbon world ?
20 March 2018
Kevin Anderson | Researcher in environement sciences
Aviation now accounts for nearly 3% of global CO2 emissions, roughly the same amount as produced by the UK. This trend, driven mainly by frequent, wealthy flyers, is set to continue, and will only lead to an environmental dead-end. What could be the alternatives ? Professor Kevin Anderson explains.
