Transformations In Mobility

Things travel around the globe: they are shipped as mass consumer goods, or transported as souvenirs or gifts. There are infinite ways for things to be mobile, not only in the era of globalisation but since the beginning of time, as the earliest traces of long distance trading show. This book investigates the mobility of things from archaeological and anthropological perspectives. Material Objects are characterised by temporal continuity, embodying a prior existence with lingering effects. Yet the material continuity disguises the transformations they may undergo, which only become evident upon closer examination. Objects are in perpetual flux, leaving visible traces of their age, usage, and previous life. While travelling through time, objects also circulate through space, and their spatial mobility alters their meaning and use with respect to new cultural horizons. As objects transform through time and space, so does the value attributed to them. Mapping out itineraries of value in the realm of the material, allows us to grasp the nature of a given social formation through the shape and meaning taken on by its valued 'stuff'. It also provides insights into the nature of materiality, through the value ascribed to objects at a given point in time and space. This edited volume brings together studies of material culture, materiality and value, with regard to the mobility of objects, with the aim of tracing the ways in which societies constitute their valued objects and how the realm of the material reflects upon society.

Transportation Transformation is an indispensable GPS for every automaker, transportation startup, investor, policymaker, or regulator who is planning the future of urban and suburban transit, and anyone else with a need to understand the changing ways in which consumers and goods will get around. When an industry this large changes this rapidly, strategy becomes complex and challenging. Transportation Transformation provides the crucial vision necessary to navigate those changes with confidence. Comprehensive, global, and meticulously researched, Transportation Transformation presents a vision of next-generation urban mobility arising from the interplay among three major groups: the automakers, the mobility services companies, and the cities. Transportation's future is subject to consumer shifts, driven by disruptive technology and business model innovations including autonomous or automated, connected, and electrified vehicles; on-demand mobility services, such as ride-hailing and micromobility; and rapidly multiplying new ways to deliver consumer transportation and goods. The book describes the transformations that automakers, mobility services companies, and cities must undertake, the new value chains that will form as a result of these transformations, and the business models that will enable the transformed organizations to monetize or otherwise benefit from next-generation mobility. Transportation Transformation details the central role of data, AI and other data-driven technologies in next-generation mobility and explains the key risks we must address in the process of transforming transportation. Even as traditional models of vehicle acquisition and ownership weaken, new business models are emerging, including subscription-, merchandising-, and advertising-based revenue streams. Such innovations will remake the staid and traditional value chains that dominate today's transportation markets and create new ones. Transportation Transformation discusses these new models under a variety of implementation scenarios involving automakers, Tier 1 suppliers, mobility services companies, and Internet technology providers. It analyzes the resulting new revenue streams and the value chains that will remake the economics of the automobile industry as well as the broader transportation and goods delivery industries. And it discusses in revealing detail the opportunities and risks ushered in by these shifts and disruptions.

Transformations in Mobility provides a panoramic overview of the changing mobility business landscape, helping transportation leaders and consultants make sense of the most important trends, challenges and opportunities impacting this sector. Drawing on exclusive interviews from thirty of the most important leaders, experts and financiers in transportation spanning all modes and from around the world, the book delves into the practical lessons learned from a demand, regulatory, strategic, technology and leadership perspective and explores the way mobility might evolve in the future. It looks into pressing issues such as fragmentation of demand in mobility, technological disruptions impacting the sector and how far it is possible to decarbonize transport when it is the world's second biggest source of emissions. Drawing on cutting-edge insights, this book explores mobility's shift from supply-driven to demand-driven growth, the role of regulation and standards, digitalization, the emergence of cross-industry coalitions and the decarbonization agenda and its impact on future transport shares. It offers insightful stories and lessons learned from some of the world's leading industry experts, including some never heard before. It also features exciting case studies such as European Rail Signalling Systems ERTMS and Class 1 Freight Railways in North America.

"Beyond Mobility" also seeks to rethink how projects are planned and designed in cities and suburbs at multiple geographic scales, from micro-designs such as parklets to corridors and city-regions. The book closes with a reflection on the opportunities and challenges in moving beyond mobility, with attention to emerging technologies such as self-driving cars and ride-hailing services and social equity topics such as accessibility, livability, and affordability.

This book explores mobilities as a key to understanding the practices that both frame and generate contemporary everyday life in the urban context. At the same time, it investigates the challenges arising from the interpretation of mobility as a socio-spatial phenomenon both in the social sciences and in urban studies. Leading sociologists, economists, urban planners and architects address the ways in which spatial mobilities contribute to producing diversified uses of the city and describe forms and rhythms of different life practices, including unexpected uses and conflicts. The individual sections of the book focus on the role of mobility in transforming contemporary cities; the consequences of interpreting mobility as a socio-spatial phenomenon for urban projects and policies; the conflicts and inequalities generated by the co-presence of different populations due to mobility and by the interests gathered around major mobility projects; and the use of new data and mapping of mobilities to enhance comprehension of cities. The theoretical discussion is complemented by references to practical experiences, helping readers gain a broader understanding of mobilities in relation to the capacity to analyze, plan and design contemporary cities.

This book examines the emergence of the black middle classes in urban Brazil, after 30 years of black mobilization and against the backdrop of deep economic, cultural, and political transformations taking place in recent decades within the country. One of the consequences of such transformations is said to be the restructuring of gender, race, and class relations. Utilizing qualitative research techniques such as ethnography, interviews, life histories, and focus groups among Afro-descendant families in the Northeast region of the country, the book explores contemporary race, class, and gender inequalities and their impact on daily lived experience. It reveals the dynamics underlying upward mobility, the diverse modes and experiences of social ascent into the middle classes, and the everyday negotiations involved in establishing one's status in the socio-racial hierarchy, which are not captured by other, more "macro" lenses. While some of these patterns are not peculiar to black people, this book argues that "race" shaped the contours and possibilities of social mobility in particular ways. This book is critical reading for specialists in the fields of inequality and race, class, and gender relations.

Big data is increasingly regarded as a new approach for understanding urban informatics and complex systems. Today, there is unprecedented data availability, with detailed remote-sensed data on the built environment and rich mineable web-based sources in the form of social media, web mapping, information services and other sources of unstructured "big data". This book brings together a group of international contributors to consider the geographical implications of mobility, wellbeing and development within and across Chinese cities through location-based big data perspectives. The degree of urban sprawl, productive density and vibrancy can be reflected from location-based social media big data. The challenge is to identify, map and model these relationships to develop cities at different places in the urban hierarchical system that are more sustainable. This edited book aims to tackle these issues through two inter-related geographical scales: inter-city level and intra-city level. The text is designed for graduate courses in planning, geography, public policy and administration, and for international researchers who are involved in urban and regional economics and economic geography.

In the era of globalization many minority populations are subject to marginalization and expulsion from their traditional habitats due to rapid economic restructuring and changing politico-spatial relations. This book presents an analytical framework for understanding how mobility is an inherent part of such changes. The book demonstrates how current neoliberal policies are making people increasingly on the move – whether voluntarily or forced, and whether individually, as family, or as whole communities – and how such mobility is changing the livelihoods of indigenous people, with particular focus on how these transformations are gendered. It queries how state policies and cross-border and cross-regional connections have shaped and redefined the livelihood patterns, rights and citizenship, identities, and gender relations of indigenous peoples. It also identifies the dynamic changes that indigenous men and women are facing, given rapid infrastructure improvements and commercialization and/or industrialization in their places of Environment. With a focus on mobility, this innovative book gives students and researchers in development studies, gender studies, human geography, anthropology and Asian studies a more realistic assessment of peoples livelihood choices under a time of rapid transformation, and the knowledge produced may add value to present development policies and practices.