Visualizations of the city are necessary to lead to inquiries and for designing urban and transport policies because they are needed to synthesize information, to stimulate new hypotheses, and to ...evoke models. However, most of the contemporary visualization models do not consider that the major paradigms in urban studies concentrate on dwelling practices. The goal of this exploratory article is to represent the practices of urban dwellers, with the aim of elaborating a method to visualize and study the evolution of practices. For this task, there is a need to translate the concepts of practice and learning into visualization. In this article, I propose a range of visualizations to render practices and learnings visible and comparable, allowing for more visual research. The visualizations are created from data gathered during interviews with inhabitants of Swiss urban regions on their daily mobility within a research project challenging the place of the car in contemporary urban spaces. By inventing representations of dweller practices, I obtain a renewed model for understanding urban spaces and practices based on learning. Finally, visualizations are used to understand urban spaces anew and to imagine urban interventions that could be beneficial to changes in mobility practices. Policy measures to reduce car use are suggested based on the model developed with the visualizations and its fundamental principles. Starting from the elaboration of a method of visualization, I propose both a theoretical inquiry of urban practices based on visual urban research and a definition of the city based on learning to orient urban designs in favour of more paedagogical thinking.
How do habits change? Some mobility scholars describe habits as regularly evolving. Several psychologists, on the other hand, observe radical changes originating from disruptions in our environment. ...I show that these two perspectives can be integrated using Berger and Luckmann's model of individual change. In the first phase, a shock from the environment disrupt a habit or habits, which are later replaced by new habits progressively learned as part of a group. I applied this model to two French bike workshops active in cycling subculture. I used interviews and participant observation in the two workshops to examine how communities potentially lead their members to change their body habits (their way of moving, seeing, touching), their perception of the car and social mobility, and to adopt a radical definition of the "good life". I found that the depth and breadth of habit change depended on the individual's involvement in the bike workshop and of the type of shock he/she experienced. As a result, I show how an instance of the cycling subculture transforms habits, both progressively and radically, by strengthening the relationship between individuals and their bikes. The article opens the path to applications of Berger and Luckmann's theory to mobility.
Mobility scholars have long been interested in challenging the automobile's hegemony in the street, particularly by highlighting how to develop urban cycling. The article contributes to this task by ...explaining how one type of conflict between the bike and the car, exemplified notably by the critical mass, fosters cycling. The characteristics of this type of conflict need to be deciphered. The paper uses the interaction ritual (IR) theory to tackle this challenge. The IR theory hypothesizes that extraordinary IRs foster identification with a group, and motivate individual action. Moreover, these special IRs, often conflictual and taking place after crises, are the basis of lasting groups. This article connects IR theory to the act of riding a bike and identifying as a biker. We apply these hypotheses to two French bike workshops active in the cycling subculture. In these workshops, I observed the organization of extraordinary IRs in conflict with the car -e.g. critical masses and other mobilizations- and daily IRs around emblems created during extraordinary IRs. I also conducted interviews about the germinal role of IRs during crises in the history of each workshop. The empirical findings show that in successful conflicts against the car, bike activists are present in high numbers to stop car traffic. Simultaneously, these special IRs are non-violent, playful, and temporary. Three forms of cycling IRs correspond to this definition: oppositional, iconoclastic, and alternative IRs. These forms of IRs seem to be more efficient during small or large-scale crises.
Micromobilities have proliferated over recent years, enabled by technological advances. Together they present opportunities to flip urban mobility into a new system, beyond car dominance, towards ...inclusivity, diversity, and sustainability. We propose a theoretical framework to compare these vehicles and assess their potential in urban space. The notion of Sphere and the conceptions associated with it guide the development of our framework, enabling classification and analysis of micromobilities evaluating their impacts on their immediate environment and their capacities to cohabit with other modes of transport. The discursive analysis of 53 interviewees is used to corroborate our framework, particularly investigating the spheric characteristics of mobility experiences using various modes in diverse urban settings in Switzerland. This paper first adopts a historical perspective, exploring the emergence of vehicular innovations that developed in response to the early problems faced by the car system in cities and traces the evolution of these innovations through to the recent proliferation of micromobilities. Then the framework and interviews are described. Finally, we discuss the socio-spatial implications of the classification of transport modes based on their spheric properties, with a view to enabling new perspectives and potentially new socio-spatial relations towards the plurality of streets.
Le futur est un thème clé des pères fondateurs des sciences sociales. Marx, Durkheim, Weber abordent la question du Progrès et des évolutions de long terme des sociétés. Ces travaux mettent fin au ...monopole de la métaphysique sur le futur et ouvrent la porte aux premières enquêtes.Aujourd’hui, il est possible d’utiliser les méthodes des sciences sociales pour participer de manière renouvelée à l’exploration du futur, en s’attachant aux visions non expertes. Pour ce faire, quelle meilleure entrée que celle de la mobilité spatiale ? Elle est une activité quotidienne et un symbole du Progrès, au travers des innovations techniques qui ont accompagné son essor lors des deux derniers siècles.Afin d’interroger les visions profanes du futur par le biais de la mobilité spatiale, 53 entretiens qualitatifs ont été conduits. Les résultats obtenus permettent de comprendre les visions du futur de la mobilité et les formes d’évolution du temps qui habitent les individus contemporains, qu’elles soient progressistes, fatalistes, ou bien rhizomatiques. Ces visions concernent le réchauffement climatique, la fin du pétrole et de la voiture. Par le biais de ces visions profanes, l’enquête couvre ainsi les enjeux les plus saillants des sociétés contemporaines.
Abstract
Sociologists have long been interested in the theoretical possibility of a universal ritual. Despite a growing number of indicators of world society and globalization, there have not been ...attempts to observe and analyze the international reach of particular rituals. We propose an extension of the “interaction ritual chain” by theorizing how an interaction ritual might be created and diffused internationally. We look at the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, which created shared conditions of social distancing and emotional distress. We analyze a discontinuous chain of urban and national interaction rituals that focused attention on the efforts of healthcare workers fighting the virus. We count clapping and noise-making in 101 countries and 26 global cities. While we find similar ritual forms and international symbols of solidarity, there was also substantial evidence of conflict and particularism.
Visualizations of the city are necessary to lead to inquiries and for designing urban and transport policies because they are needed to synthesize information, to stimulate new hypotheses, and to ...evoke models. However, most of the contemporary visualization models do not consider that the major paradigms in urban studies concentrate on dwelling practices. The goal of this exploratory article is to represent the practices of urban dwellers, with the aim of elaborating a method to visualize and study the evolution of practices. For this task, there is a need to translate the concepts of practice and learning into visualization. In this article, I propose a range of visualizations to render practices and learnings visible and comparable, allowing for more visual research. The visualizations are created from data gathered during interviews with inhabitants of Swiss urban regions on their daily mobility within a research project challenging the place of the car in contemporary urban spaces. By inventing representations of dweller practices, I obtain a renewed model for understanding urban spaces and practices based on learning. Finally, visualizations are used to understand urban spaces anew and to imagine urban interventions that could be beneficial to changes in mobility practices. Policy measures to reduce car use are suggested based on the model developed with the visualizations and its fundamental principles. Starting from the elaboration of a method of visualization, I propose both a theoretical inquiry of urban practices based on visual urban research and a definition of the city based on learning to orient urban designs in favour of more paedagogical thinking.
This article combines empirical, theoretical, and philosophical references to explore the notion of Effort as an integral part of active mobility and urban experience. Considering the increasing ...value of physical effort in urban life styles, we challenge the general premise of transport planning that tends to reduce the effort required for mobility - particularly when providing alternatives to car use. Informed by interviews we have conducted with inhabitants of three major agglomerations in Switzerland, Zurich, Geneva, and Lausanne, we identify a threefold approach to effort, and explore the spatial implications of them for urban spaces that contribute to the practice of active mobility. We introduce the notion of entraining effort, as engaging and stimulating experience that improves the actor's qualifications and result in the development of skills that facilitate making more effort. We take examples of existing urban spaces that effectively accommodate varied physical activities, and encourage entraining effort, underlining these spaces' fragmentary character and that they are rarely part of the daily urban commute. We conclude that in order to effectively move toward prevalence of active mobility, engaging and integrating the exerted effort in daily commutes; these spaces need to form an ensemble - providing accessibility throughout the city.
J'ai publié une thèse en 2018 intitulée "Changer le mode de vie, changer la mobilité - voiture et sobriété", sous la direction de Vincent Kaufmann et Jérôme Chenal. L’ouvrage issu de sa thèse a été ...soutenu par le Fonds National Suisse de la Recherche Scientifique. J'en propose ci-dessous une synthèse sous forme de questions-réponses. 1. Quel est le thème de la recherche ? L’individu est une créature d’habitudes. Elles fluidifient sa vie quotidienne en lui permettant de ne pas choisir sans ces...
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