Why is it relevant to examine mobility transitions from a justice perspective? And what can we gain from looking at Just Sustainability Transitions through the frame of mobility justice? With this two-hour online event inviting makers and thinkers working on the issues of mobility and justice, we wanted to empower initiatives and networks to undertake just mobility transitions in their respective localities. To this end, we presented a multidisciplinary panel discussion composed of experts in the academic field and the transition perspective, as well as network practitioners advocating for mobility justice. The event is part of the event series on Just Sustainability Transitions.
This interactive online event took the form of panellist presentations followed by a plenary panel discussion. We invited experts and stakeholders in the field of just mobility transitions that investigate the issue from different perspectives: mobility justice theories, sustainability transitions perspective, and a practitioner experience in mobility justice advocacy. Representing these three fields were Anna Nikolaeva (University of Amsterdam), Emil Breemer (Dutch Research Institute for Transition), and Stephanie Johnstone-Laurette (Ecology Action Centre). The presenter talks and the plenary session yielded interesting insights into the necessary direction just sustainability mobility transitions need to take, and how these can look practically. This blog post presents some of the key insights and holds a recording of the event in full to relive the learnings that didn’t make it in this summary.
This event was organized as a collaboration between the JUSTRA Cities Network project of the Vital Cities & Citizens (VCC) initiative and the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT).
Watch the event and discover its insights:
#1 Working towards just mobility requires relationships and conversations
Interventions aimed at expanding mobility infrastructures for marginalised communities are nothing without also investing in relationships. It is in informal discussions and conversations that the real needs of communities can come to light and allow the tailoring and better designing of interventions. Mobility justice is as much listening as it is planning and designing. Mobility is about place-making as much as it is about transportation. The Ecology Action Centre, for instance, provides bikes for newcomers that allow for transportation throughout the areas they settle in, but pair this with bike tours to acquaint them with important shops, places, and facilities. Mobility and transportation inevitably boil down to a person’s ability to physically navigate place in their daily lives, and facilitating this in accordance with real experienced needs is essential to foster stronger senses of place and ease their embedment in it.
#2 Solutions need to be context-specific
Mobility justice is as relevant in cities as it is in rural areas, though the needs, challenges, and experiences of these areas are highly different. This highlights the importance of designing interventions on a case-by-case basis rather than providing a universal solution. Similarly, mobility experiences vary from one population group to another, already within the same localities. When designing interventions aimed at just sustainable mobility transitions, it is important to take an intersectional lens. Such a lens acknowledges that questions of mobility access, sustainability, and justice are intimately connected to questions of gender, race, income, and other sources of marginalisation. This means that active steps need to be taken to prevent causing harm to vulnerable groups whose mobility access is already precarious; for example, when dissuading car use, we need to also think about the safety of roads for people now walking and biking that are prone to being the victims of harassment.
#3 Radical transitions are the only considerable transition
Too often, mobility transition policy designs accommodate those whose mobility access is already comfortable. When it does target more marginalised groups, it is often tangential to disproportionate efforts made to maintain existing unjust and unsustainable mobility infrastructures. The current tendency to approach mobility transitions through incremental changes without disrupting existing structures will not lead to the radical changes necessary; rather it may only perpetuate its harmful practices. In order to overcome this, we need to take the inherently political nature of how we move as a starting point. How we move and how we can move will determine where we are able to go and who we will be able to interact with. Creating just and sustainable mobility systems will require transit-oriented development that enables walkability and cyclability with special attention to marginalised and vulnerable groups. Adopting such a lens should culminate in urban development that fosters the ‘15 minute city’ where necessities are close by and that limit the need for carbon-based transport.
Resources from the webinar
- Recording of the event
- List of resources shared and overview of questions asked during the chat storm.
- Previous event in the event series on just sustainability transitions: Bringing Food Justice to the menu
About the organizers
The JUSTRA Cities Network project of the Vital Cities & Citizens (VCC) initiative in collaboration with the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT).
About the Author
Yannick Overzee is working as a research assistant for the Vital Cities & Citizens initiative on the Just Sustainability Transitions in Cities Network (JUSTRA Cities Network) research project. He holds a MSc in Cultural Anthropology: Sustainable Citizenship at Utrecht University and is currently pursuing his MSc in Industrial Ecology at the Technical University Delft and Leiden University. His research interests include urban agroecology, food justice, social movements, and sustainability transitions.
