Speaker
Description
In recent years, the 15-Minute City idea and its reliance on cycling as standard means of transport has been established as a major pillar of a socially inclusive and healthy transformations towards sustainable urban mobility. Against this backdrop, we elaborate in this paper on questions of equi-ty and justice in the context of low-density settings on the fringes of a medium-sized city (Graz, Austria): Cycling is driven by strategic policies and infrastructure development as part of the Com-pact City Idea(l), but everyday life and mobility is still premised on car use. Framed by Social Prac-tice Theory and focusing on routinised mobility performances by way of ride-along-interviews, our empirical analyses are twofold: They aim for identifying social norms and embodied practises and competencies related to the meanings of both car use and cycling on the one hand and for taking issues of socio-spatial and also epistemic justice as part of the mobility transformation more seri-ously into account on the other.
Biography
Carmen Kern is a research associate at the RCE Graz-Styria (Centre for Sustainable Social Transfor-mation). Her research interests are based in the field of sustainable urban and regional develop-ment. She is working on a study of cycling as a contribution to the concept of the 15-minute city in suburban settings using social practice theory with a view to social justice as part of the JPI-Urban Europe project SPECIFIC (Social Practices Enabled by Cycling In FIfteen-minute Cities).
Anke Strüver is professor for human geography at the University of Graz/Austria. Her research is on urban everyday life with a focus on embodiment related to health, mobility and digitalisation. She is head of the RCE Graz-Styria – Centre for Sustainable Social Transformation. The centre con-ducts action research based on connecting social justice with ecological sustainability in urban con-texts.
