This episode features a conversation with António Ferreira, Assistant Professor at the University of Porto. He has been on the podcast before discussing cyborgs as more- (or perhaps “less-“?) than-humans. For this episode, I invited António back to discuss transport and mobility planning and its relation with planetary planning. We start out with the role computers and models have played in transport and mobility planning, and end up touching on topics such as the porosity of hydraulic systems, passivity, artificial intelligence, professionalism, time, among others. We touch on mobility austerianism, a topic we wrote about together a little while ago, questioning how we decide what are “essential” types of mobility in a world where less mobility will likely be necessary. However, what the episode highlights is how all these themes are intricately interwoven with transport and mobility, and how much shifts in that field have made an impact on the world as we know it - and could impact what is possible in the future.
Do check out the references in the reference list, as they include a wealth of sources for thinking further on these topics.
Take-aways for planners (and others), by António Ferreira:
* Stop thinking as if you are in a pipe; stop the excessive focus on making pipes and putting things in them.
* Spend more time thinking what should be in pipes and what shouldn’t. Emergency services? Yes! Daily mobilities, focused on meaning, purpose - perhaps not!
* Reflect on the reasons we want pipes: concern with efficiency, professionalism, economic vitality. So only if the rules of the game are changed can we live in prosperity.
* Demilitarize transport.
* Focus on porosity.
References mentioned during the episode:
Bridle, J. (2023). Ways of being: Animals, plants, machines: the search for a planetary intelligence. Penguin Books.
Ferreira, A. (2024). Mobilities in a turbulent era. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Ingold, T. (2011). Being alive: Essays on movement, knowledge and description. Routledge. (especially Chapter 13 that includes reflections on wayfaring)
Reid, C. (2014). Roads were not built for cars: How cyclists were the first to push for good roads & became the pioneers of motoring. Red Kite Publ. (including a note on the history of the term “jaywalking”)
Rosa, H. (2003). Social Acceleration: Ethical and Political Consequences of a Desynchronized High-Speed Society. Constellations, 10(1), 3–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.00309
Rosa, H. (2010). Full Speed Burnout? From the Pleasures of the Motorcycle to the Bleakness of the Treadmill: The Dual Face of Social Acceleration. International Journal of Motorcycle Studies, Volume 6(1), 1–15.
Rosa, H. (2018). Available, accessible, attainable. The mindset of growth and the resonance conception of the good life. In H. Rosa & C. Henning (Eds), The Good Life Beyond Growth. New Perspectives. Routledge.
Virilio, P. (2006). Speed and politics (2006 ed.). Semiotext(e).
von Schönfeld, K. C., & Ferreira, A. (2022). Mobility values in a finite world: Pathways beyond austerianism? Applied Mobilities, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2022.2087135
Wall-E Movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/
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