You will find here the various research projects of the Mobile Lives Forum:

The Mobile Lives Forum’s research program

is in keeping with the perspective of the “mobility turn.” Its aim is to study mobility in relation to lifestyles and territories.

Survey on the impacts of the lockdown on French people’s mobility and lifestyles

Finished research

The nationwide lockdown instated in France on March 17, 2020 to curb the rapid spread of Covid-19 has caused a restriction of people’s freedom that is unprecedented in peacetime, especially on their freedom to move and travel. At the Mobile Lives Forum, we wanted to assess the present and future social impacts on the lifestyles of French people. We found large disparities in individual practices, especially depending on age, but also that people have discovered novel lifestyles, some of which have bred a newfound desire to move and travel less after the end of the lockdown.

Keywords : enquête, confinement, covid-19, ralentissement, Lifestyles
Research participants : Mobile Lives Forum, L'Obsoco (Research and consulting compagny)

Free public transport

Research by theme

Free public transport is not a new idea, but it has gained traction recently with the announcement that two major transport networks were becoming free: those of the metropolitan area of Niort (100,000 inhabitants) and of the urban community of Dunkirk (200,000 inhabitants). The success of the Dunkirk experiment, which incorporates a larger urban development project and a renewal of transport services, has now led to heated debates even in France’s largest cities. Can free transport encourage a modal shift and limit the use of individual cars? Is it a measure of social justice or an economic utopia?

Keywords :
Research participants : Maxime Huré, Jean-Louis Sagot-Duvauroux, Allan Alaküla

Removing Paris’ périphérique ring road: towards more sustainable and desirable lifestyles?

Ongoing research

In the run-up to the 2020 Paris municipal elections, many proposals and claims are being made on the future of the périphérique, the 35 km ring road around Paris: removing it, redesigning it as a main road with traffic lights, turning it into green spaces, creating several dedicated lanes to promote different modes of transport, etc. The Mobile Lives Forum wanted to explore the option of totally removing it. What problems would its removal pose at the Parisian, metropolitan and regional level? Under what conditions could this removal be part of a transition towards more desirable and sustainable lifestyles? And therefore, what should we make of the proposals made in the municipal elections campaign?

Keywords :
Research participants : Professional Workshop Urban Planning and Development, Jean Debrie

Autonomous vehicles: what role do they have in the mobility transition?

Ongoing research

At a time when companies and governments are pouring their energy into the search for innovation, autonomous vehicles seem to embody the epitome of an innovation that promises to revolutionize the future of the automobile. Around the world, the progress made by Google and Uber as well as the announcements of American, European and Asian manufacturers are being closely monitored and covered by the media. In this context, the Mobile Lives Forum commissioned La Fabrique Ecologique, a French environmental think tank, to study whether autonomous vehicles can be part of the transition to a more sustainable world.

Keywords : Voiture autonome; mobilité durable; mobilité du futur; transition; automobile
Research participants : La Fabrique Écologique

Understanding the behaviour of hypermobile tourists

Ongoing research

International tourism has grown considerably in recent decades, partly as a result of the growth of low-cost airlines which have become an essential sector of the global economy and a regular feature in our way of life. And yet, the explosion of tourism and in particular of air travel raises some environmental concerns. Given that 5% of French people alone contributed in 2006 to 50% of greenhouse gas emissions from tourism, the Mobile Lives Forum wanted to explore the lifestyles of hypermobile tourists. Who are they? What is the environmental impact of their mobility? To what extent and under what conditions would they be willing to change their habits to reduce their carbon footprint?

Keywords : tourism; hypermobility; environment
Research participants : Isabelle Frochot, Véronique Mondou, Philippe Violier, Céline Pellerin, Samuel Bates

Mobilities and externalities in Nova Scotia’s local food movement

Ongoing research

Local food movements argue that a reduction of food-miles has positive social, environmental and economic impacts. A full account of the costs of food production, however, needs to go beyond the path from food to plate and consider the wider set of translocal social and economic relations involved in local food production. Using a multi-method, ethnographic approach, this project examines the costs of local food production with special attention on the international labour migration that sustains Nova Scotia’s agricultural sector.

Keywords : proximity;agriculture;local;consumption;canada
Research participants : Catherine Bryan, Elizabeth Fitting, Karen Foster

28 hours per week: The mobility and energy implications of working time reduction (WTR) in Germany

Ongoing research

In 2018 German metal industry workers won the right to reduce their working week from 35 to 28 hours. As with similar schemes elsewhere, sustainability commentators have highlighted the potential of working time reduction not just to achieve a better work-life balance but also to reduce energy consumption by reducing overall material consumption. This research project examines the desirability and sustainability of this scheme, paying particular attention to the conditions under which reduced working hours can produce social and environmental benefits. What are the participants’ aspirations? What are the impacts on their mobility and lifestyle? Is the reduction of direct and indirect energy consumption as significant as expected?

Keywords : Travail; marché du travail; temps de travail; mode de vie
Research participants : Miklós Antal, Dominik Wiedenhofer, Thiago Guimarães Rodrigues, Barbara Plank

The mobility/immobility of homeless people in the public space of Bordeaux

Ongoing research

“Homeless people” are often subject to stereotypes and generalizations that don’t take into account the increasing diversity of situations that result from new kinds of poverty and poor housing. Studies on their needs and aspirations in terms of dwelling and mobility are often misinterpreted or based on standards that aren’t appropriate for them. This research, conducted by a multidisciplinary team of students in political science and architecture in Bordeaux, seeks to understand the mobility and immobility of people who don’t have access to a private place of dwelling and intimacy, and the reasons why these practices come up against normative injunctions emanating from a variety of actors.

Keywords : SDF, Immobility, questions sociales, Public Policy
Research participants : Projet collectif SciencesPo/Architecture Bordeaux

When working hours disrupt the mobility of everyday life

Ongoing research

In recent decades, work has been affected by a number of social changes (the increase of women in the labour force, for example) and technical breakthroughs (the explosion of ICTs). The restructuring of such a core element of our daily activity schedule has also redefined our habits, constraints and movements. In order to capture how new work modalities impact other activities, this research departs from the traditional time frame for analyzing mobility (the day) in favour of a broader framework that encompasses all aspects of our fractured lives.

Keywords : Travail, Télétravail, mobilité quotidienne
Research participants : Benjamin Motte-Baumvol, Olivier Bonin, Leslie Belton Chevallier, Giulio Mattioli

Bicycle Workshops: places to build autonomy and lifestyles?

Finished research

Over the past decade, bicycle self-repair workshops have been growing throughout France. These collectives, which are still a recent phenomenon, have so far been hardly studied, despite being places of socialization to mobility, in a context where people are pressured to change behaviors (especially in terms of mobility) to cope with environmental issues. Beyond enabling people to be more independent by teaching them how to repair their own bicycle, do these workshops bring about a more global change in their participants’ lifestyles and views of society? Are they an opportunity to transition to more sustainable lifestyles?

Keywords : cycling, lifestyle, aspirations
Research participants : Alexandre Rigal

Mobility and job hunting: a digital barrier?

Finished research

How do young people from working-class neighborhoods between the ages of 18 and 24 cope with the unfamiliar trips that they have to undertake for their social and professional integration? How do they deply different types of skills for mobility? What is the role of digital technology in their travels? Hélène-Marie Juteau tried to answer these questions by following thirty young individuals for two years and carefully observing how they undertake a trip, from planning it to completing it.

Keywords : Inequality, Immobility, Collective representations, User, Travail, Motilité, Identity, Virtual Mobilities
Research participants : Christian Licoppe, Hélène-Marie Juteau

City-centre, pedestrianization and lifestyles

Finished research

In 2015, a vast project of pedestrianization of Brussels’ main central avenues was launched, radically changing the face of a city-center that had been designed for cars. The study assessed the impact of this pedestrianization on people’s lifestyles. It focuses both on how activities, seen as signs of different lifestyles, are carried out in the built and social environment of the pedestrian area, and how these activities fit into each individual’s life. The purpose of this study was to understand what lessons we can draw from a project of drastic car reduction in the heart of a major city, and to assess the extent to which such a project can help the transition towards more desired and sustainable lifestyles.

Keywords : Belgium, Brussels, soft modes, walk, pedestrian, city center
Research participants : Gabrielle Fenton, Jean-Louis Genard, Ignace Glorieux , Michel Hubert, Quentin Letesson, Joeri Minnen

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