The diversity of the 15-min city: Approaches, definitions and methods

Contemporary urban neighbourhood planning concepts centre around the accessibility of daily services within a walkable or cyclable distance from home. As such, these urban planning approaches promise to further the sustainable mobility transition at the local level. Carlos Moreno`s 15-minute City as the guiding urban planning model for Paris became a world-famous example.

The most commonly used operationalisations of the 15-minute-city concept are based on proximity-based accessibility. While most studies have focused on the transport and land-use components of accessibility, recent literature has emphasised its individual dimension. Differences in individual needs, constraints, and experiences lead to diverse levels of perceived accessibility for different population groups, even when living in areas with similar calculated accessibility. The residential location and its characteristics as well as the individual factors have shown to influence the mobility and activity space patterns of residents and, therefore, their actualised accessibility.

Based on the diversity of understandings and realities of accessibility, different approaches, definitions and methods have recently been introduced to the scientific debate about the 15-minute City. For example, the concept has been expanded to include accessibility by public transport to make it suitable for peri-urban/rural areas. In parallel, related integrated land-use and transport planning policies and practices have been employed in different urban and regional settings.

This session focusses on the diversity of substantial and methodological approaches related to the 15-minute City and neighbouring concepts.

The aim of the session is to discuss and critically reflect the variety of definitions, methods and approaches to study the diverse conceptualizations, realisations and lived experiences of the 15-minute City and related ideas. And thus, to contribute to a comprehensive picture of the debate in different spatial and social contexts.

We welcome contributions on accessibility and 15-minute Cities from a wide spectrum of research and disciplines that

provide a conceptual or theoretical contribution to the debate
apply qualitative, quantitative, multi or mixed methods research
involve different target groups living in diverse spatial settings
discuss the policies and practices in the implementation of these concepts.
 

We especially invite contributions from Early Career Researchers (PhD students or young PostDocs).

Transition

Les recherches sur la transition s'intéressent aux processus de modification radicale et structurelle, engagés sur le long terme, qui aboutissent à une plus grande durabilité de la production et de la consommation. Ces recherches impliquent différentes approches conceptuelles et de nombreux participants issus d'une grande variété de disciplines.

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