AAG Conference

The 2012 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers
New York, New York
February 24-28, 2012

Utopian/Dystopian Mobilities

Open Session in Mobilities Research organized by Mimi Sheller (Drexel University), Malene Freudendal-Pedersen (Roskilde University), Sven Kesselring (Technische Universität München) and Ole B. Jensen (Aalborg University).

ARCHIGRAM WALKING CITY

Mobilities research touches upon crucial social and political imaginaries concerning the challenges and issues related to environmental problems, climate change, sustainability, social exclusion and new societal configurations of mobility as we face the planetary limits of growth (e.g. Dennis & Urry 2009, Urry 2011). In this session we want to bring to the forefront elements of radical thinking and imaginative envisioning that from time to time surface through utopian and dystopian speculation about the future. Whether in literary, social scientific, architectural, cinematic or other genres of spatial representation, the session aims to open up the interesting tensions in these visions of the future of mobility, both realized and virtual.

While the more utopian outlook emphasizes innovative and unprecedented solutions to future mobilities, many 20^th and 21^st century future visions of mobility may be argued to carry dystopian dimensions such as the end of capitalism as we know it or the collapse of urbanism (e.g., Lefebvre 1973/1976; Graham 2010). The session will focus on how to connect earlier utopian ideas related to technology and design (e.g. Buckminster Fuller, Archigram, LeCorbusier, Bauhaus, etc.) to the contemporary practices and discussions about ‘alternative mobilities’ (e.g. off-the-grid living, Transition Towns, local/slow movements, etc.) and connect these to imaginations of future mobile utopias and dystopias (e.g. post-carbon mobilities, zero-emission mobilities, low-energy futures, cybermobilities, etc.). The session aims to connect research within geographies of mobilities with projects of utopian and dystopian thinking that have often inspired actual designs and practices. It shall explore the creative potentials in a cross-fertilization of these fields of thought.

Key references

Dennis, K. & J. Urry (2009) After the Car, Cambridge: Polity Press

Graham, S.  (2010) Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism, London: Verso

Lefebvre, H. (1973/1976) The survival of capitalism, London: Allison & Busby

Urry, J. (2011) Climate Change and Society, Cambridge: Polity Press

Association of American Geographers, April 14-19, 2010, Washington, D.C.

There will be a Mobilities Journal Distinguished Lecture by Professor Stephen Graham, followed by a journal reception.The Mobilities Lecture: “Disrupted Cities: When Infrastructures Fail”, Saturday April 17th, 4:40pm

Saturday, April 17th, 8am -11:40 am Sessions on “Sustainable Mobility and Mobility Justice: Geographies of Transition”, organized by Mimi Sheller, Sven Kesselring, and Ole B. Jensen

Description: The field of mobilities research engages not only in critical analysis of historical and existing mobility systems, but also future modeling of potential transition scenarios including active interventions, experimentation, and fostering alternative cultures of mobility. The key arena of active intervention and experimentation is the effort to create and implement more sustainable mobility systems to replace the current dominant system of automobility. The societal challenge consists in democratically transitioning toward an environmentally friendly, socially just and equitable provision of mobility. What models exist for each of these complex transitions? How do technologies, institutions, cultures, everyday practices and identities come into play to bring about these intertwined social changes? What best practices can be learned from specific case studies or from cross-case comparisons? What is the relation between sustainable mobility and the distribution of motility, mobility capital, and mobility access? How can spatial and cultural contexts for dwelling and moving be redesigned to promote both sustainable mobility and mobility justice?

Panel 1

Ole B. Jensen, In search of the ‘Wild Contemporary’ – exploring the potential of the techno utopian urban imaginary to contemporary mobility challenges

Katharina Manderscheid and Noel Cass, Mobility justice and the right to immobility – from automobility to autonomobility

Anne Jensen, Urban Mobility in the Reframing of a City for a Climate Friendly Future

Lise Drewes Nielsen, Sustainable future mobilities, decoupling car culture and social life?

Discussant: Mimi Sheller

Panel 2

Malene Freudendal-Pedersen, Cycling in the sustainable city

Paula Negron, Everyday accessibility in Montreal’s suburban environments: A difficult situation for elderly people

Inger Marie Lid, Accessible streets

Jan Prillwitz and Stewart Barr, Achieving Sustainable Mobility: Perception and Acceptance of Future Travel Behavior Measures

Discussant: Sven Kesselring

Sunday, April 18th, Sessions on “Re-thinking the Transport/Mobilities Divide”

Session I (5246)
10:00 AM   Author(s): *Juliet Jain, PhD – University of the West of England
Abstract Title: You Like ‘Transport’, I Like ‘Mobilities’ – Should We Call the Whole Thing Off?

10:20 AM  Author(s):  *Marion Tillous – Université Paris 1 / CRIA
Abstract Title: Complementarity of mobility and transport geography approaches: only a matter of method? Research in progress on the travel mode choice of the elderly.

10:40 AM   Author(s): *Stewart Barr – University of Exeter
Jan Prillwitz – Utrecht University
Abstract Title: The Everyday and the Holiday: transport, mobilities and the sustainability turn

11:00 AM   Author(s): *Sven Kesselring – Technische Universität München
Abstract Title: Corporate mobility politics between trip generation and cultural practice. The big wheels of modern mobilities

11:20 AM    Author(s): *Phil Jones – University of Birmingham
Abstract Title: The joy of cycling: mapping, embodiment and urban space

Session II (5446)

2:00 PM   Author(s):  *Julien Grunfelder, Mr. – University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Thomas Sick Nielsen, Professor – University of Copenhagen
Abstract Title: The Transport Perspective in Polycentric Urban Regions

2:20 PM   Author(s): *David Gray – Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen
Job Shaw – University of Plymouth
Jane Farmer – University of Highlands and Islands
Abstract Title: Social dimensions of informal lift giving in rural communities

2:40 PM   Author(s): *Lars Bocker – Utrecht University
*Martin Dijst – Utrecht University
Abstract Title: Negotiating Shifting Situations by Business Travelers

3:00P M   Author(s): *Mimi Sheller, Ph.D. – Drexel University
Abstract Title: Cultural Transitions Towards New Mobility Systems: Beyond Transport Geography?

3:20PM  Author(s): *Tim Schwanen – School of Geography and the Environment, Univeristy of Oxford
Abstract Title: The mobility multiverse