Local transformation processes play a key role in the successful design of the transport transition. It is precisely in people's immediate living environment – in districts, neighbourhoods and communities – that the implementation of the transport transition becomes concrete and tangible. That is why scientific examination of locally specific conditions, challenges and design options is particularly important for developing sustainable and socially just mobility concepts.  

In this artec paper, Leandra Schmei?er examines the extent to which the innovative concept of mobility cultures can be applied to a small-scale context in order to investigate measures and the resulting transformations of mobility in neighbourhoods. The findings were applied in qualitative empirical research to the Ellener Hof neighbourhood in Bremen. The use of the concept of mobility cultures as a framework for analysis and design is creative and novel. The paper illustrates how a better understanding of local everyday mobility can provide impetus for the mobility transition at the neighbourhood level. In doing so, it not only opens up new perspectives on the design of sustainable and socially just mobility and its relevance to everyday life, but also provides concrete food for thought – for both science and practice – for the implementation of innovative mobility solutions at the local level.

The work was originally completed at the University of Bremen as a master's thesis in urban and regional development and supervised at artec. We are pleased to now include it in revised form in the artec Papers series.

The artec Sustainability Research Center is an interdisciplinary center of the University of Bremen for scientific research on sustainability issues. In its publications series ‘artec Paper’ the research center publishes a loose series of articles and talks as well as selected working papers and reports from research projects.

You can read the complete artec paper no. 237 here. Please also note our further artec papers.