Work package Citizens

Aim

The overall ambition with this work package is to provide new insights regarding under what conditions new, more sustainable mobility and accessibility practices can emerge. To do so, we will

1. Synthesise previous experiences regarding ways in which citizens can be actively involved to perform a sustainable citizenship regarding transport;
2. Provide in-depth knowledge of how citizens reason about sustainable mobility and accessibility and by whom, when and how they argue that sustainable everyday mobility can be achieved;
3. Explore how citizens’ mobility practices are challenged and altered by using digitally supported accessibility and mobility services which are tailored to suit their needs, restrictions and socio-spatial conditions.

Content and scientific context

The empirical work in this WP will be guided by two theoretical frameworks: Theories of social practices highlight the importance of studying practices of everyday life, including mobility practices, in order to grasp the complex structures related to the space, time and surrounding infrastructures at play when people use transport systems (Shove et al., 2012, Shove & Trentman (eds.) 2018). Citizen involvement theories stress the importance of involving citizens in decisions such as choices of transport through participatory forms of engagement (Bason, 2012).

The research carried out in this work package builds on a mix of secondary and primary empirical material. While secondary empirical material is an important basis for task C1 (see further below) task C2 and C3 builds solely on a primary empirical material which consist of travel diaries, surveys, in- depth interviews and interactive workshops with citizens (in close collaboration with WP LLD).

When it comes to the citizens, our aim is to recruit 15-20 individuals from each of the two target groups defined in section 2.6, while striving for diversity in terms of age, occupation, capabilities, hobbies etc, and an equal number of men and women. We will examine similarities and differences within as well as between the two different groups of citizens. The participants will be recruited through approaches such as local channels, snowballing, advertisements etc. We have established a connection with the manager and some of the staff at the home for elderly and will get support from Botkyrka municipality regarding how to reach out to other citizens and workplaces.

Work package leader

The leader of this workpackage is Malin Henriksson, VTI

Tasks

Task C1 - Civic involvement: insights and experiences from promising cases

Aim and research questions

The aim of this task is to explore previous examples of sustainable citizenship, by looking specifically into aspects of civic involvement in Avoid, Shift and Improve approaches in the transport system. We will analyse especially promising cases that have evoked a sustainable citizenship in relation to transport. This research task will provide us with insights and inspiration regarding possible ways to shape and implement more sustainable accessibility and mobility services, which build on active citizen involvement, and which take diversity into consideration.

The work will be focused on the following research questions:

• What is the “best practice” of involving citizens with different prerequisites in the design and implementation of digitally supported services for mobility and accessibility?

• How and why do citizens in these examples contribute to sustainable development through their mobility practices?
• How have these examples ensured civic involvement in processes that otherwise tend to be led by market- and/or policy actors?
• What are the key experiences of challenges in these examples in terms of sustainable citizenship, and how can these be mitigated?

The task will be carried out as a literature review (including so called “grey literature”), through which a gross list of relevant cases from the last 5 years are identified. We will make a strategic selection of 8-12 cases that we will analyse more closely. We will complement the literature review with qualitative interviews with individuals with unique insights in these cases ( 1-2 persons per case). These insights will provide input to the development of the specific interventions inLL3.

Deliverables:

1 research report (with WP P and WP M)

1 conference presentation.

Task leader: Jessica Berg, VTI

Task C2: Citizens’ ideas of sustainable mobility and accessibility

Aim and research questions

The aim of this task is to explore imaginaries, values and norms among citizens in Riksten regarding a climate-neutral and socially just transport system. In this WP we explore how such a system could look like but also possible contradictions between attitudes supporting sustainability on the one hand, and unsustainable mobility practices, on the other. We explore how they view the relation between sustainability and their mobility practices, explore the barriers that inhibit more sustainable mobility practices, and probe into whether the citizens living their everyday life in Riksten can and want to take on the role of sustainable citizens in the transport system.

More specifically, this task will explore the following research questions:

• How do the target groups of citizens imagine, relate to and reason about sustainable mobility and accessibility?
• What type of change(s) do they think need to be carried out, by whom, when and how? What roles do they think that they themselves could or should take in achieving a sustainable transport system?

This research task will be based on in-depth interviews and workshops with citizens living and working in Riksten. The interviews will be carried out with the same selection of citizens as the ones recruited for C3, and the work will provide in-depth knowledge that is important for the development of relevant mobility and accessibility services in Task L1.

Deliverables

1 internal working report

1 conference presentation

2 peer-reviewed journal papers (1 with WP P)

1 debate article with WP P.

Task leader:  Malin Henriksson, VTI

Task C3 - Exploring citizens’ possibilities to shift to sustainable mobility and accessibility

Aim and research questions

The aim of this task is to provide empirically grounded insights regarding digital mobility and accessibility services’ possible impact on sustainability and accessibility. In concrete terms, we will explore, in close collaboration with LL3, what mobility and accessibility practices that digitally supported mobility services lead to, and whether these are sustainably sound.

In this task we will explore the following research questions:

• What are the initial mobility practices, level of accessibility and transport-related climate footprint of the citizens from the two target groups?
• What are their experiences when trying out the tailored mobility and accessibility services? How are their practices altered and what dilemmas and challenges do they encounter?
• How are their overall level of accessibility and climate footprint affected over the timespan of LL3?

This task includes a step-wise approach which is part of the development, implementation and analysis of LL3. We will conduct several rounds of in-depth interviews and interactive workshops, in combination with collaborative design methods such as sensitizing materials, probes and travel diaries. These will help tease out tacit knowledge on experiences of using new mobility and accessibility services. Surveys will be used to gather insight on the services’ impact on the citizens’ climate footprint and level of accessibility.

Deliverables

1 internal working report

2 conference presentations

3 peer-reviewed journal papers

1 chapter to the WP S anthology

1 research report

1 PhD thesis.

Task leader: Greger Henriksson, KTH