Mobilities, accessibility and proximity

Mobility is an essential condition to participate in social life because by moving we can access the places where valued opportunities are available. Providing access to such opportunities may support social inclusion since it increases the possibilities for individuals to realize their own projects and personal aspirations. Therefore, reduced accessibility to opportunities, services and social networks may produce processes of territorial and social fragilization that assume different dimensions and characteristics according to socio-spatial conditions.

Nevertheless, the socially justified goal of providing a comprehensive accessibility should not always imply more and faster mobility and the use of the transport systems. Granting inclusive accessibility with more local resources and facilities at walking distance, less need for long-distance motorized mobility, caring for different accessibility needs is emerging in several urban agendas, associated with the transition to sustainable and fair urban mobility and supported also by the Covid 19 constraints.

The track questions the effectiveness of this emerging model in dealing with different forms of inequalities in the access to basic services and opportunities; in facing different socio-territorial conditions and mobility practices; and finally, in coping with the marginalization of some urban, periurban, rural territories that suffer from low accessibility level to the main activities of the economic, political, and social life of a community, up to the configuration of social exclusion.

The track aims at investigating these issues, thanks to case studies and theoretical contributions from the broad field of planning, mobilities studies, geography, sociology.

The contribution should address, but being not limited to, the following questions:

In which way theoretical reflections about mobility, accessibility and proximity may help to address policy measures devoted to reducing inequalities in the access to urban opportunities?
Enhancing accessibility through proximity vs. through mobility: is increased accessibility an unquestionable good?
What are the conditions for ensuring accessibility by proximity in different territorial conditions (i.e. urban areas, peri-urban territories, low density areas)?
What is the role of digital devices and technology in supporting fair, inclusive and sustainable mobilities?
Which strategies and barriers in upscaling sustainable niche innovations in transport and mobility policy?
How to define the basic services and opportunities that may help to redefine spatial and temporal accessibility thresholds?
 

How does Covid-19 outbreak impact on the emergence of new needs and mobility practices? Should they be supported, and how can they be approached?

Mobility

For the Mobile Lives Forum, mobility is understood as the process of how individuals travel across distances in order to deploy through time and space the activities that make up their lifestyles. These travel practices are embedded in socio-technical systems, produced by transport and communication industries and techniques, and by normative discourses on these practices, with considerable social, environmental and spatial impacts.

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