Mobility in China : following in the footsteps of the West?

Les Rencontres du Forum Vies Mobiles

Conference 9th of November, 2017 *China's mobility system has been turned completely upside down since the 1980s. Large-scale public investment program in transportation infrastructure, the country's economic boom or changes in state control over travel have all contributed to the extraordinary increase in mobility. In China, the transition from the horse-drawn car to rapid modes of transportation has taken place within the span of a singe generation; versus several generations in Western countries. Amazing.* *How do the Chinese experience these changes in their daily lives? What impact has the mobility revolution had on their living environments? What are their dreams for the future?*

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The Mobile Lives Forum presented the results of its latest research on mobility in China, accompanied by anthropologist Dominique Desjeux, who synthesized the results based on his own work on the country, and Xavier Leherpeur, film critic, who enlightened about what the cinema is saying.

1) Introduction, by Christophe Gay

2) From rationed mobility to widespread mobility, by Xavier Leherpeur

3) The ambivalent view of mobility and progress in China from 1950 to 2015, by Dominique Desjeux

4) Disrupted cities and lives, by Xavier Leherpeur

5) Mobility : a model at all costs ?, by Sylvie Landriève

6) Open discussion with the audience

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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To cite this publication :

Mobile Lives Forum (29 November 2017), « Mobility in China : following in the footsteps of the West? », Préparer la transition mobilitaire. Consulté le 09 May 2025, URL: https://forumviesmobiles.org/en/forum-meetings/12269/mobility-china-following-footsteps-west

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