New journal out: Applied Mobilities

We are very proud to announce the first issue of our new journal Applied Mobilities – A journal of planning, design, technology and culture co-edited by Malene Freudendal-Pedersen, Kevin Hannam & Sven Kesselring. The first issue is available for free at http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rapm20/1/1 .

“The journal Applied Mobilities has been launched to address this field of contradictions and ambivalences concerning the benefits and risks of mobilities. With a focus on applied perspectives, our aim is to utilize the connections between the theoretical and the empirical to highlight, emphasize and develop a greater understanding of the transition of mobility systems towards sustainable practices and the socio-political consequences of diverse mobilities. The mobilities field is trans-disciplinary by nature, and Applied Mobilities seeks to reach out to praxis and demonstrate how a deeper understanding of current social, economic, political and environmental issues provides opportunities to shape future sustainable mobilities. (Freudendal-Pedersen, Kesselring & Hannam 2016)”

1st of April, we launched the new ‘Applied Mobilities’ journal at the AAG conference in San Francisco (http://www.tandfonline.com/rapm). Jonathan Manley and Zoe Brooke from Taylor and Francis invited us and about 50 people from the conference for a very nice reception. Jonathan opened the launch by saying that he wishes Applied Mobilities the same big success as Mobilities, which is one if the strongest Routledge journals. Mimi Sheller, co-editor of Mobilities, said some very nice words to commemorate the late John Urry and we gave him our biggest tribute. 

We are very happy about this new journal and the great collaboration with Taylor & Francis/Routledge. This new journal is a great opportunity to move on with the mobilities turn and to demonstrate that social science based mobility research has a strong contribution to the future of modern societies. We are looking forward to many excellent and exciting submissions in the near future!

Please, inform your librarians about this new journal which is closely working together with the Mobilities journal at Routledge and which can be subscribed as a package.

Help us to make Applied Mobilities a new strong voice in mobilities research!

First issue of Applied Mobilities

Remembering John Urry

Dear all,

This is by far the worst email that ever went through this mailing list. As you have heard already our highly esteemed colleague, friend and mentor John Urry passed away last Friday the 18th of March. We are still shocked, saddened and somehow paralyzed by this news. We knew John as a highly dynamic person, agile and full of plans, projects and books for another 70 years of his lifespan.

Without any exaggeration Cosmobilities wouldn’t exist without John Urry’s scientific work but also his incredible capacities of building networks, maintaining friendships, social relations in general and initiating collaboration, research, publications, conferences and so forth. His decent character, wonderful sense of humor and his brilliant mind turned work meetings, scientific discussions, writing and even organisational work into a joyful activity.

To be honest, we do not have the right words to express what a loss he is for us – personally, for the network, the scientific community and the future of mobilities research. But trust us it is a great and very sad loss.
We and the whole board of the Cosmobilities Network send our deepest and warmest condolences to his family and close friends.

Next week at the AAG in San Francisco we wanted to celebrate the launch of a new journal – Applied Mobilities – with him. We will do this anyway, this all the more because he would have hated it not to happen, because of him. And also, because this is the way how we as scientists can give him all the honor and the appreciation that he deserves. Also this journal is standing on his shoulders! And again, we do not exaggerate at all. We will miss him there a lot and in the future and John will be very present when we will raise the glasses next week.

Malene and Sven

The Future of Mobilities Studies? Insights from Caserta

By Katharine Manderscheid and Anna Lipphart

As mobility scholars and board member of Cosmobilities Network (Katharina Manderscheid) and T2 (Anna Lipphardt, who is also a member of the EASA AnthroMob Network), we have been engaged over the past years in intense conversations with each other on the differences, the common ground and the potential synergies between the three research networks. The joint conference in Caserta (September 2015) provided a great opportunity to open up this conversation by initiating a broader cross-disciplinary and inter-generational discussion on visions, questions and suggestions for the future development of the interdisciplinary field of Mobilities Studies.

In this T2M newsletter we have written a short note about their insights from the Open Space Session conversations on the future directions of the mobilities studies

Photographer: Dorte Fjalland (https://www.flickr.com/photos/dortef/)

8 PhD Opportunities in Mobilities

Mobil.LAB doctoral research group in Munich, Germany, are looking for 8 new PhD Fellows:

Download mobil-LAB fellowships 2016

Picture above – Photographer: Dorte Fjalland (https://www.flickr.com/photos/dortef/)

Call for papers / 12th Cosmobilities Network Conference

Sharing Mobilities – New perspectives for societies on the move?

30. november – 2. december 2016, Stuttgart/Bad Boll

Keynotes: Bridgette Wessels (University of Sheffield), Tim Cresswell (Northeastern University, Boston), Philipp Rode (London School of Economics)

Fishbowl session: Invited speakers from mobility industry and academies engage with conference participants in a lively moderated discussion.

The mobility world is massively changing. New policies, new modes of transport and new socio-spatial practices of mobilities are on the rise. Jeremy Rifkin saw this clearly in 2000. In his bestseller ‘The Age of Access’ he says the future of modern societies will no longer be solely organized through individual property and ownership. Rathr, new collaborative forms of consumption and sharing would play a key role in the organization of everyday life and business.

In fact, new cultures of sharing and participation are emerging: people share cars, bikes, houses, expertise and mastery in science and craftsmen’s work etc. Once radical visions have become part of the lingering but steady transformation of norms, procedures, routines and capitalist principles. A burgeoning political awareness can be witnessed in cities, regions, in mobilities research, planning, politics, business and civil society. Even global car producers become part of the new sharing culture and seriously consider themselves as selling mobility instead of cars within two decades.

Where does tis social change come from? Why is this an appealing idea? Can we expect a new mobility regime, growing markets for sharing mobilities? Or is this just a new fashion, greenwashing? Does it provide the access that Rifkin was foreseeing, with more equality, even sustainable mobilities or is it just a new fashion – greeenwashing?

For the Cosmobilities Network, the biggest European mobility research network, it is about time for a critical scientific investigation. Therefore, the 12^th Cosmobilities Conference invites contributions to the following questions:

• What are the social, ecological, cultural and aesthetic dimensions that generate this resonance of ‘sharing mobilities’?
• Are we observing the birth of a culture of multi-mobility, of changing (auto)motive emotions and of sustainable mobilities?
• What are the socio-political implications of a new mobility culture?
• Is the hype on sharing mobilities just an expression of the pursuit of big business, the next phase of capitalist development?
• Are new mobilities arising as a ‘common good’? Or as a social and cultural resource in a cosmopolitan world full of social, ecological, economic and cultural risks?
• What does ‘sharing mobilities’ mean against the background of global migration and touristic flows and what is the impact on networked urban mobilities?

The 12^th Cosmobilities Network conference invites contributions looking at the social, cultural, spatial, ecological and socio-economic consequences of new sharing concepts. Papers and contributions elaborating aspects of related risks, chances, utopias and dystopias are welcomed in particular.

Cosmobilities encourages scholars and practitioners to present and discuss theoretical, conceptual, empirical and applied work and perspectives on the past, present and future of sharing mobilities.

Cosmobilities conferences aim for creating inspiring, creative and thought-provoking environments. The majority of sessions will foster exchange and discussion. Therefore, we especially encourage participants to submit abstracts for the 7/7 and the panel sessions.

7/7 sessions

This means seven presenters, seven slides, and seven minutes for each presentation. The sessions will have two-hour slots, leaving at least one hour for common discussion. Presenters shall focus on their main argument in order to avoid overly-complex presentations. They shall initiate discussion and they are not expected to be comprehensive.

The organizing committee, based on submissions, will select only the best submissions.

Panel sessions

Panel sessions have a maximum of five presenters. Each gives a five minutes focused input to the panel topic. Panel sessions will also be organized in two-hour slots. Abstracts should include the names of all panelists.

Paper sessions

Each presenter has 20 minutes; each session includes four presenters maximum. The organizing committee, based on submissions, will plan these sessions.

Please, submit your abstract of no more than 300 words no later than May 1^st 2016 to Cosmobilities2016@cosmobilities.net.

Contact

Malene Freudendal-Pedersen (Roskilde University, DK), malenef@ruc.dk

Sven Kesselring (Nuertingen-Geislingen University, G), sven.kesselring@hfwu.de

Conference post address:

Dr Sven Kesselring

Research professor in sustainable mobilities

Nuertingen-Geislingen University

Park str. 4, room 012

73312 Geislingen

phon tel: +49.733 22525

Germany

Scientific Committee

Weert Canzler (Berlin)

Helen Carter (Aalborg)

Malene Freudendal-Pedersen (Roskilde)

Kevin Hannam (Edinburgh)

Sven Kesselring (Geislingen)

Katharina Manderscheid (Lucerne)

Robert Nadler (Leipzig)

Justin Spinney (Cardiff)

Chelsea Tschoerner (Geislingen)

Organizing committee

Sven Kesselring (Geislingen)

Malene Freudendal-Pedersen (Roskilde)

Chelsea Tschoerner (Geislingen)

Emmy Laura Perez Fjalland (Roskilde)

Katrine Hartmann-Petersen (Roskilde)

Helen Carter (Aalborg)

Photo credit: Dorte Fjalland (https://www.flickr.com/photos/dortef/)