T2M 2025 Conference: Mobility Alternatives - Alternative Mobilities

T2M 2025 seeks to spark debate that moves beyond mono-modal approaches through the broad lens of Mobility Alternatives – Alternative Mobilities.

The term Mobility Alternatives refers to transport modes positioned as alternatives to dominant forms of mobilities—largely automobilities—such as walking, cycling, micromobilities or public transport as substitute to driving cars. Even in contexts where car use is a minority pursuit rather than a majority practice, the pervasive normativity of automobility is present. This T2M 2025 framing transcends modal split and modal shift notions of mobility alternatives. It concerns broader mobility cultures, historical trajectories (Ploeger & Oldenziel 2024), and differences across local, regional and national contexts as well as reflections on justice, equity, and inclusion (Nyamai & Schramm2022). Finally, it facilitates thinking about the co-existence and epistemological status of ‘new’ and ‘old’ mobilities and the interplay between innovation and decline in mobility practices.

Similarly, the theme Alternative Mobilities provides a lens to explore non-mainstream mobilities that develop outside dominant mobility cultures, with rich historical trajectories. These practices, often unregulated, peripheral, marginalized, or overlooked, create vibrant cultures and communities and are central to innovations, justice concerns, and to developing alternative futures for low carbon mobilities (van der Straeten 2022), while also facing barriers and resistance. This T2M conference aims to foster these debates and bring alternatives to the fore.

T2M 2025 invites discussions on the roles of legislation, technical innovation, financial incentives, social resistance, and media narratives (Glachant & Behrendt 2024) —ranging from novels, newspapers to films—in shaping mobility systems over time. It encourages comparative perspectives on how such processes differ in the Global North, East, and South, offering a forum for stronger ‘alternative’ conceptualisations of mobilities, traffic and transport.

In discussing Mobility Alternatives and Alternative Mobilities, T2M encourages debate beyond ‘mono modal’ approaches and the often-present ‘mode-shift’ focus in transport research. We invite conference contributors to adopt an ‘alternative’ perspective beyond the confines of the mode they usually study (Mom 2020), and to contribute to critically examining the dominance of automobility and challenge its status as the default paradigm in transport systems.

This topic also invites an integration of global and local perspectives, encouraging work regarding all regions of the planet, drawing attention to the interconnected crises of climate change, urbanization, global road safety,and gendered, racial and generational mobility inequalities, including immobilities (Kurnicki 2022) and datafication (Behrendt & Sheller 2024, Chang & Behrendt 2024). Together these challenges demand an ‘alternative’ paradigm shift: a fundamental rethinking of established mobility approaches.

With this in mind, we invite contributions from the arts, social sciences and humanities, as well as engineering and technology, and wholeheartedly welcome work from any other disciplinary background, especially practitioners, artists and activists. We are looking for proposals for papers and sessions that engage broadly with the conference theme, although all contributions are welcome.

We welcome relevant contributions from any academic perspective or discipline, from professionals, policymakers and practitioners in the history, transport, traffic, and mobility fields, as well as artists and creative professionals, designers, engineers, and educationalists. A limited number of travel grants will be available for participants without access to institutional funding, particularly from low-income countries.

The conference language is English. The conference is in-person only.* ->> 4th November: Workshops, Project & Collaboration Meetings, Excursions. ->> 5-7 November: Sessions and Keynotes.

The conference has a special focus on all four T2M journals – Mobilities, Transfers, Journal of Transport History and Mobility Humanities. Special sessions in relation to them and publishing opportunities will be organised. Selected papers may form part of Special Issues of the T2M journals.

The submission platform is now open, with the submission deadline expected by April 20. Further registration details will be provided shortly.
 

Submission Formats

Papers: Individual submission of a paper consists of an abstract (300 words) and a brief biography (100 words), including contact information. Papers will be grouped thematically by the programme committee and may become part of a session (see below).

Posters: This is a great way to discuss early or exploratory work and present it asa poster at the conference. A submission consists of an abstract (300 words) and a brief biography (100 words), including contact information.

Sessions: A full, pre-organised workshop, debate, panel session. A session submission should include a title, a summary of the session theme and the method chosen for facilitating discussion/interaction (300 words), as well as abstracts for each contribution/presentation (300 words). A short biography of each presenter and chair is also required (100 words), with contact information.

Thematic workshops: These allow for alternative and creative formats, not typically exceeding 6 named participants, led by a chair, with an option to specify the overall participant number where needed.

Debate sessions: Debate sessions have a maximum of five presenters. Each gives a five- minute focused input to the topic, and this should be followed by a discussion involving the audience. Led by a chair.

Panel sessions: Panels consist of a chair, three to four paper presenters, and one discussant (optional). Panels should include time for audience discussion. Each presenter has 20 minutes (15 min + 5 min for questions); papers are grouped thematically.

Project and Collaboration Meetings: For Tuesday 4 November, we offer the opportunity to book rooms for project meetings or other collaborative sessions. Co-locating these meetings with T2M could help reduce travel-related emissions and create synergies. Provide a topic and all information needed to book rooms: number of people, length of the meeting(s), etc.

After acceptance, all abstracts will be published on the conference website. You will also have the opportunity to submit a full paper (5,000 words). We strongly encourage the submission of full papers, which will be shared with all conference delegates.