Commoning mobility: Towards a new politics of mobility transitions

Abstract

Scholars have argued that transitions to more sustainable and just mobilities require moving beyond technocentrism to rethink the very meaning of mobility in cities, communities, and societies. This paper demonstrates that such rethinking is inherently political. In particular, we focus on recent theorisations of commoning practices that have gained traction in geographic literatures. Drawing on our global comparative research of low‐carbon mobility transitions, we argue that critical mobilities scholars can rethink and expand the understanding of mobility through engagement with commons–enclosure thinking. We present a new concept, “commoning mobility,” a theorisation that both envisions and shapes practices that develop fairer and greener mobilities and more inclusive, collaboratively governed societies. Our analysis introduces three “logics” of mobility transition projects. First, the paper discusses how a logic of scarcity has been a driver for mobility planning as the scarcity of oil, finance, space, and time are invoked across the world as stimuli for aspiring to greener, “smarter,” and cheaper mobilities. The paper then identifies two responses to the logic of scarcity: the logics of austerity and the logics of commoning. Austere mobilities are examined to problematise the distribution of responsibility for emissions and ensuing injustices and exclusion in low‐carbon transitions. The logics of commoning shows a potential to reassess mobility not only as an individual freedom but also as a collective good, paving the way for fairer mobility transitions and a collaborative tackling of sustainable mobility challenges.

Radical mobilities

“…Research reviewing different perspectives on mobility justice (e.g Pereira et al, 2016;Sheller, 2018;Lucas et al, 2015) shows how particular roots/routes for understanding justice imply quite different approaches and interventions into mobility. How mobility is understoodwhether as migration or transport, a resource, an amalgam of movement, practice and meaning (Cresswell, 2010b) a commons (Nikolaeva et al, 2019), an enfolding life-path (King, 2012) -or as I have suggested herea transformation of material-semiotic energy, will also have implications for how mobility justice is imagined.…”

“…Discourses of scarcity (e.g. lack of funding, road space and the need to curb emissions) mean government-led initiatives are cut, and responsibility for mobility is shifted to individual, privatised or community-level responsibility (Nikolaeva et al, 2019).…”

Smart cycling futures: Charting a new terrain and moving towards a research agenda

“…Also, following Aldred (2010), and in resonance with the rhetoric of community A. Nikolaeva, et al Journal of Transport Geography 79 (2019) 102486 and commons in cycling innovation texts (see the examination of Ring-Ring application in Nikolaeva et al, 2019) we would refrain from interpreting particular expressions of care for the self and the environment as exclusively neoliberal. Thus, further research is needed to explore the politics of cycling and its relationship to wider changes in urban governance, including neoliberalisation.…”

Walking city streets: Spatial qualities, spatial justice, and democratising impulses

“…Geographers publish a lot on the politics of mobility (for example, see Nikolaeva et al., ). Here, we want to add to that corpus; augment those limited numbers of studies that reflect on what connects walking, streets, and democracy; and link these issues to others framed by pragmatic philosopher John Dewey (1859–1952).…”