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We are organising a session on the politics of knowlege and non-knowing at the RGS-IBG Annual International Conference that will take place 27-30 August 2024 in London. Please see more information about the session below and consider applying.

Session organisers: 

Anna Nikolaeva

University of Amsterdam

A.Nikolaeva@uva.nl

Ersilia Verlinghieri

University of Westminster and University of Oxford

e.verlinghieri@westminster.ac.uk

Irene Gómez-Varo

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

irene.gomez@uab.cat 

Climate change, congestion, air pollution and persistent inequalities in mobility and accessibility have highlighted the need for societies to transition to low-carbon and more equitable mobilities, often conceptualised as ‘just mobility transitions’. Questions around what knowledges count in such transitions are key to ensure that they are actually just. This is especially important as the established high-carbon mobility regime systemically excludes certain groups and their knowledges from participating in the governance of transitions, rendering certain values, worldviews, needs, and behaviours invisible (Lowe, 2021; Schwanen, 2021; Sheller, 2018).

This session aims to contribute to enriching and further developing the recent debate on epistemic knowledge in mobility transitions (Smeds et al. 2024). Recent works started highlighting how, for example, car-centrism generates not only peculiar politics of knowledge but also ‘politics of non-knowing’ through creating, maintaining and mobilising in political debate particular kinds of ‘ignorance’ (Nikolaeva, Forthcoming). Authors considered how the use of smart technologies, ‘big data’ and AI in mobility governance may produce new invisibilities, hypervisibilities, biases and inequalities (Behrendt and Sheller, 2023). Similarly, they highlighted how the predominance of quantitative methods in transport research and planning, insufficient questioning of Eurocentrism in the field as well the underrepresentation of minoritised groups among mobility ‘experts’ and policy-makers further necessitate attention to the epistemic dimension of transitions (Wood et al., 2020).

This session joins these calls, inviting for a more careful focus on the role of knowledge in transitions, especially acknowledging that there is still a dearth of fine-grained, situated accounts of the processes of knowledge production that should be uncovered. These can help show the multiplicity of understandings of what constitutes ‘useful’ knowledge in specific contexts, and reveal the epistemic struggles around contested mobility policy goals. There is also a need to bring together discussions in the fields of planning and geography on both the roots of epistemic mobility injustice and on the ways of transcending epistemic marginalization of certain groups and communities. 

We invite papers that engage with the above discussions. Themes may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Epistemic (in)justice and just mobility transitions
• Epistemic (in)justice and transport controversies
• Politics of knowledge and ignorance in mobility transitions
• Epistemic consequences of car-centrism 
• Intersectional invisibilities in low-carbon mobility transitions, related to class, gender, race, sexuality etc.

If you are interested in participating in this panel, please provide a max. 150-word statement and max. 100-word bio (including affiliation and e-mail address) to us at A.Nikolaeva@uva.nl, e.verlinghieri@westminster.ac.uk and irene.gomez@uab.cat before 21^st February 2024. The session is planned to be in person. However, in case you can only participate remotely, please let us know and we will try to organise a hybrid session.  Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

References

Behrendt F and Sheller M (2023) Mobility data justice. Mobilities 0(0): 1–19. DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2023.2200148

Lowe K (2021) Undone science, funding, and positionality in transportation research. 10.1080/01441647.2020.1829742

Nikolaeva A (Forthcoming) The politics of non-knowing, smart technology, and just mobility transitions: A case study and research agenda. Environment and Planning F: Philosophy, Theory, Models, Methods, and Practice. http://tinyurl.com/jjhc3f99

Schwanen T (2021) Achieving just transitions to low-carbon urban mobility. Nature  Energy 6(7): 1–3. doi: 10.1038/s41560-021-00856-z

Sheller M (2018) Mobility Justice: The Politics of Movement in an Age of Extremes. London and New York: Verso Books.

Smeds E, Verlinghieri E, Kocsis J, et al. (2023) ‘Seeing Like a Citizen’: Rethinking City Street Transformations through the Lens of Epistemic Justice. Planning Theory & Practice 0(0). Routledge: 1–33. doi: 10.1080/14649357.2023.2273664

Wood A, Kębłowski W and Tuvikene T (2020) Decolonial approaches to urban transport geographies: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Transport Geography 88: 102811. doi: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2020.102811

On 27 October the seminar series Cities & Mobilities opened with by talk by Tim Cresswell “Maxwell Street: Writing and Thinking Mobility and Place in a Chicago Market” based on his forthcoming book. You can see the full talk on the website of the Centre for Urban Studies.

After the talk the discussion revolved around the stark contrast between the richness, the vibrancy of the place, the diversity of mobilities that criss-crossed Maxwell street, its palimpsestic nature and the language of the policy-makers and planners. The discussion proceeded to question the methodologies we use to describe places and ways in which scholars communicate their findings: how can the multiplicity of stories about mobility and place be explored and made visible and how such stories can have impact on policy – or should they aspire to that at all? Another interesting discussion developed around the transformation of cities whereby global financial market may be replacing and displacing actual physical markets (one of the oldest types of urban public space). We also spoke about transitions from human interaction and negotiation forming the basis of urban choreography of movement first towards regulatory frameworks, produced by humans, and more recently – towards algorithms.

Read more about the Cities & Mobilities Seminar series and come join the discussion!