Abstract:
At present, the transformation of the mobility system is one of the biggest challenges for science and society. The transition towards a more sustainable and ecologically responsible mobility system requires a far-reaching change of daily practices and deeply incorporated routines. This challenge becomes obvious by taking a look at cities: fine particles and related bans of diesel vehicles, traffic jams and –noise pollution, just to mention a few of the persisting issues. High rents or housing shortage, as well as the institutional expectation of job flexibility and associated spatial mobility force more and more people to take longer distances on their daily way to work. This trend reinforces already existing issues such as land sealing, CO2 and nitrogen oxide emissions etc. Accordingly, these issues are more and more put on the political agenda. However, being so-called wicked problems, there are far reaching differences in the way stakeholders exactly define these issues as well as potential solutions.
The dissertation project aims at exploring practices of everyday mobility in the context of daily trips to work in Stuttgart. The overall research question is to what extent and how the discursively conveyed need for a transformation of the mobility system becomes part of everyday routines. Based on a practice theory approach, the project will examine how routinized practices of everyday mobility are performed and which (collective and/or political) actors, power relations and discourses are made relevant in this context. The underlying assumption is that such practices are embedded in material infrastructures and held together by implicit knowledge. Therefore, these practices are not directly accessible for reflection.
The project will take a qualitative approach, using Grounded Theory combined with elements of Situational Analysis. Since the focus of the analysis lies in a deeper understanding of the complexity of social situations and its participants, this combination allows to overcome dominant macro-micro-dualisms. Based on a first access through focus groups with relevant participants (commuters, urban residents, urban planners etc.), relevant discourses will be analysed and semi-structured in-depth interviews will be conducted. In addition, relevant stakeholders will be interviewed and local political decision-making processes will be observed through ethnographic fieldwork.
The aim of the dissertation project is to explore the complex interrelations between daily mobility practices, techno-material infrastructures, discursive expectations and implicit knowledge. On basis of a deeper understanding of these complex interrelations, the project will explore how mobility practices can be made accessible for change. In doing so, insights how people are confronted with demands, possibilities and structural limits of sustainable mobility in their everyday life are gained. On basis of the results, practical recommendations regarding possibilities for change in mobility patterns will be derived in a final step.