Speaker
Description
The paper presents the methodological approach to map, describe und better understand urban mobility pathways towards sustainability with a focus on urban modal shift. The approach is developed to better understand “why” (success mechanisms) and “how” (dynamics) the three German case study cities Bremen, Karlsruhe and Leipzig have developed into frontrunner cities for sustainable urban mobility in Germany. The paper uses transition theory to develop a conceptual framework that analyses developments in urban mobility as reconfigurative multi-level pathways. The paper identifies key phases when considerable change took place and analyses structure, agency and situative factors to understand multi-regime and procedural knock-on developments, e.g., in infrastructures, local planning practices and cultural meanings. The paper systematically considers the role of „place“ as deeply rooted local characteristics provide additional explanatory value for better understanding locally-specific pathways. Framework application visualizes pathways and underlying structure-agency relations, interrelations across time and the role of agency for pathway creations. ‘Deep’ transitions require changes in values, perceptions and cultures that can be sensed in the cities analyzed.
