10 three shades of sustainable mobile futures planning for contradictions and complexities
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8/16/2019 10 Three Shades of Sustainable Mobile Futures Planning for Contradictions and Complexities
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Applied Mobilities
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Three shades of sustainable mobile futures:planning for contradictions and complexities
Katrine Hartmann-Petersen
To cite this article: Katrine Hartmann-Petersen (2016) Three shades of sustainable mobile
futures: planning for contradictions and complexities, Applied Mobilities, 1:1, 129-133, DOI:10.1080/23800127.2016.1149298
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2016.1149298
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APPLIED MOBILITIES, 2016
VOL. 1, NO. 1, 129–133
EXTENDED BOOK REVIEW
Three shades of sustainable mobile futures: planning for
contradictions and complexities
Gridlock. Congested cities, contested policies, unsustainable mobility, by John
C. Sutton, Routledge-Taylor & Francis, New York & Oxon, 2015, 181 pp., $47.00,
(hardback), ISBN 978-1-317529189
Life phases, mobility and consumption. An ethnography of shopping routes,
by Helene Brembeck, Niklas Hansson, Michèle Lalanne, and Jean-Sébastien Vayre,
Ashgate, Surrey, 2015, 193 pp., $125.00, (hardback), ISBN 978-1-472445325
Cycling cultures, edited by Peter Cox, University of Chester Press, Chester, 2015,
213 pp., $28.00, (hardback), ISBN 978-1-908258113
A key theme has emerged on to the mobility research scene throughout the last two decades,
namely sustainable mobilities which asks questions such as: How do we understand the dynamics
behind mobilities and in relation to society and sustainability? And how can we develop sustaina-
ble urban mobilities in the future? No easy answers are available, but many mobilities researchers
and practitioners have tried to give their suggestions (Banister 2008; Freudendal-Pedersen 2015b;
Kesselring 2016; Sheller 2011). It is of significant importance to keep developing new insights
into the understanding of sustainable mobile futures at all levels. Three recently released books
discuss – in very different ways – how we can move on with these debates.
In his new book, Gridlock , John C. Sutton (2015) explores how two competing discourses in
transport policy and planning practice lead to contradictory solutions and gridlock in policy as
well as in transport systems. On the one hand there is a sustainable transport narrative, “conviv-
ial transport”, which emphasizes non-automobile modes of transport such as public transport,
cycling and walking as solutions through smarter, public policy interventions. On the other hand,
there is a “competitive transport system” that supports liberalization and the privatization of
transport services behind transport policies. These two approaches are to some extent difficult
to unite in a common framework that is able to navigate for a sustainable transport system in
the future. Sutton discusses in the book to what extent it is possible to do both.
Sutton analyses the political, cultural and social dimensions of transport, travel and the poten-tials of technologies. He fosters a clear vision of mobility and transport in 2035 as a backbone for
his analyses of the current situation and points out that mobility management is the key factor to
develop societies from gridlock towards sustainable developments. The metaphor “gridlock” cov-
ers what he considers to be the ambiguous challenge of how transport and mobility has become
an arena where competing policies and intentions are put into practice. The result is gridlock in
the streets as well as in policy. As an answer to the current gridlocked situation, Sutton develops
a manifesto for sustainable mobilities that builds upon two key hypotheses:
First, “mobility management is fairer, equitable and more affordable than a system of road
tolls or other road pricing solutions. For these reasons mobility management is more accept-
able to the majority of the public” (Sutton 2015, xviii). Sutton stresses that the political impetus
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130 BOOK REVIEW
to implement radical solutions will increase in accordance with increasing urban congestion,
pollution and other exposed side effects of road transport. He subscribes to a broad concept of
mobility management regulating both individual transport and logistics, mainly seen in the Travel
Demand Logistics Management (TDLM) system. In his opinion, TDLM will increasingly influence
at transport planning in the future.
Second, “high levels of mobility – of goods and people – are essential for a successful mar-
ket-oriented economy and in order to comply with this, the polity and the public will be forced
to make compromises” (Sutton 2015, xviii). Sutton claims – mainly from an UK standpoint – that
governments and some transport organizations see no contradiction between policies that boost
mobility (in terms of economic growth and massive investments in roads, airports, port schemes,
etc …) and policies that aim to reduce travel demand. If these seemingly contrasting strategies
fail to meet climate targets and congestion reducing initiatives, road pricing seems to be one way
of planning against irrational mobility behaviour – at least as a long-term theoretical discourse.
Despite some positive implementation experiences around the world, this economic solution
runs into a number of political and cultural barriers. What seems to be a rational and necessary
solution for some, is a more complex issue for politicians and indeed the public to consider.
Gridlock addresses the pressing problems of growing populations and congestion while look-ing ahead to a more sustainable future. The book provides an in-depth picture of the current
state of (un)sustainable mobility mechanisms. Sutton’s manifesto is definitely not reassuring news
for conventional thinkers or business-as-usual planners. He concludes: “We are in denial about
pending congestion crisis, just as there are those who are in denial about the long-term effects
of climate change caused by burning fossil fuels” (Sutton 2015, 167). He sums up, that perhaps
the most pressing challenge right now is to rethink mobility as a central facet of social structure
and a key premise in understanding the dynamics of an advanced society.
Analysing possible sustainable mobile futures in the light of the potentials of the manage-
ment of mobilities requires a deeper understanding of mobile dynamics at an individual level
in everyday life (Elliott and Urry 2010; Freudendal-Pedersen 2009; Jensen 2012; Jensen, Sheller,and Wind 2014; Kesselring 2006). Sociological investigations of the relations between mobilities
and urban life have opened up multiple understandings of the interconnections between for
example car use and everyday life. Asking families about their daily routines, their mobile behav-
iour and the organization of their everyday life often demonstrates that the transport situation
between home and work has a significant influence on the ways in which we choose to get
around in other parts of our social and professional life (Peters, Kloppenburg, and Wyatt 2010;
Taipale 2014). What defines our mobile behaviour and the way we cope with the everyday life
puzzle is related to a wide range of rational and irrational considerations. In the daily pursuit for
a good life, shopping routines also influence mobile patterns, sometimes as an isolated everyday
life activity, other times as an integrated part of our way home from work. The book, Life Phases,Mobility and Consumption (Brembeck et al. 2015), thus discusses the implications of shopping
routes and consumerism in motion. This book looks into the consumer logistics of everyday life,
which covers the considerations, habits and the interaction with different artefacts in “moving
from home to the store and back home again” (Brembeck et al. 2015, 1). Depending on specific
life phases (age, number and age of children, body condition, etc.), shopping routines are defined
by the use of different equipment (i.e. pushchairs, trolleys, crutches, etc.) and the influence of
different settings (steep stairs, different means of access, heavy bags, etc.). This book provides an
ethnographic understanding of issues of participation, inclusion and accessibility to the city and
looks into the shopping route experiences of two empirical groups: families and the elderly. The
authors are inspired by actor-network theory and they focus on the urban geographical regions
of Gothenburg in Sweden and Toulouse in France.
What makes ethnographic studies of shopping routes interesting is the, until now less-artic-
ulated, knowledge we gain about mobile complexity and everyday life in a consumer society:
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APPLIED MOBILITIES 131
A shopping route is neither linear nor straightforward – or circular for that matter – but rather a mesh of
various entanglements in local spaces including devices and experiences, actions and mishaps, plans and
impulses, and not always within the reach of people’s minds and hearts but the result of a whole network
of elements contributing on their own terms to give form to the supply operation. (Brembeck et al. 2015, 2)
An entangled patchwork of elements becomes vital to the shopping situation. In this assem-
blage of rational and irrational reflections and actions, mobility and modes of transport play an
important role. Consumption and mobilities are deeply integrated in urban dwelling and ourdaily life: “Shopping is […] an omnipresent feature of urban settings generated by and generating
mobility” (Brembeck et al. 2015, 159). Analysing the artefacts and transport technologies that
families and the elderly use, we learn about the performing of “(un-)sustainability and (non-)
people-friendliness of European cities” (Brembeck et al. 2015, 159). But just as important, the
authors send a message for planners and politicians creating visions of more sustainable futures.
They argue that the
spatial and temporal dislocations between residence or housing, shopping, transportation and social net-
works need to be in focus in visions for more sustainable futures. Visions abound of car-free cities and
increased presence of public transport and bicycles are prime means towards sustainable city life including
work, leisure, shopping, and other social needs. (Brembeck et al. 2015, 160)
The authors claim in line with Sutton’s considerations in Gridlock, that technologies and infor-
mation are crucial elements towards more sustainable future planning. Whether technologies
and information are a precondition for mobility management (Sutton 2015) or fundamental for
well-integrated shopping or transportation/movement practices, sociocultural and spatiotem-
poral dimensions have to be integrated in future planning processes (Brembeck et al. 2015, 161).
These aspects support the aims of Peter Cox’s, recently published anthology Cycling Culture (Cox
2015). It presents what the contributors characterize as a kaleidoscopic view of cycling conver-
sations across national settings and experiences. Cox et al. provide new insights into the under-
standing of the priorities, perceptions of freedom and interdependences of cycling in everyday
life. This book adds to the growing field of cycling literature (i.e. Aldred 2013; Freudendal-Pedersen
2015a; Larsen 2015; Rosen, Cox, and Horton 2007; Spinney 2010) and verifies cycling as an inspir-
ing research field within social sciences.
The key message of book is that cultures of cycling need to be a further object of scientific
investigation, because understanding the diversities of cycling makes a better starting point for
a region, a city or a nation’s mobility policies. But the book also presents a series of conversations
across social and political contexts that bridge between perspectives from academia, activism
and public policy (Cox 2015, 2). Analysing cycling as a cultural practice opens up for discussions
on cycling as a wide “range of diverse, even disconnected practices that may be read through a
range of different lenses” (Cox 2015, 11). Cox suggests that we disaggregate the cycling practice
itself. Traditionally planners have understood cycling activities in terms of journey purpose (util-
ity, sport, leisure, etc.). By thinking more of diversities in practices and varieties of technologies,
cycling cultures become “a continuum of activity in which riders occupy different positions at
different times” (Cox 2015, 23). This connects to the more general understanding of practices that
differ between competences, meanings and materials (see Shove, Pantzar, and Watson 2012).
In the opening chapter Cox raises a question that sums up the basic purpose of the book:
can a study of social theory and cycling cultures really inform a better understanding of bicycle
policies? One purpose is to understand existing urban cycling conditions better, another is “to
engage with the concrete processes of change that are part of the everyday world” (Cox 2015,
39). The anthology collects a range of different theoretical aspects, analyses, experiences and case
studies. Cox extracts three dimensions of cycling culture (Cox 2015, 204–207): the perhaps most
obvious is that culture can be seen as collective behaviour (a group perspective). The seconddimension enhances the influence of context or wider social structures, political regimes and
physical spaces and the third discusses culture as ideology, seen as broader signifying practices
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132 BOOK REVIEW
within society. Through the different contributions to this anthology, Cox concludes that mobili-
ties and sustainability are forms of complexity that do not fit easily in linear frameworks of direct
cause and effect. Cycling Cultures shows how a cultural understanding of mobilities is crucial in
order to discover interdependencies within urban mobilities in general (Cox 2015, 213).
Leaving differences in scale and scope aside, the three books discussed here contribute to
better qualified discussions of how to design and strategize sustainable mobility futures. The
potentials in increased influence in mobility management are significant. The move towards better
systems and even more advanced technologies evolves through deeper knowledge. Research
on consumption patterns, individual routines and mobile cultures are examples of important
contributions that lead to cross-disciplinary thinking in future planning, policies and practice
processes. This also underlines that researchers, planners and politicians need to keep discuss-
ing how to develop sustainable futures for the common good. And even more difficult: who
decides what the common good is? Sutton pinpoints a pivotal dilemma in coping with future
challenges related to transport and mobilities: How do we move out of gridlock – in both it’s
literal and figurative meaning – into more innovative and sustainable solutions when convivial
and competitive societal discourses are fighting? The simple answer is that these discussions are
without one specific end result, one specific sustainable future. Sustainability and mobility areat the same time both contradictory and compatible dynamics. This is a fundamental condition
of the mobilities research field that calls for multiple approaches, multiple experiments, multiple
methodologies, multiple explanations, etc. No black or white answers correspond to the chal-
lenges of a mobile society build upon complexities and diversities. We need not only three – or
fifty – shades of grey when creating sustainable mobile futures. As these books suggest, only
identifying a wide range of shades will make us wiser in making courageous future decisions
regarding sustainable mobilities.
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Katrine Hartmann-Petersen
Department of People and Technology, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
© 2016 Katrine Hartmann-Petersen
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2016.1149298