Thematic Focus
The summer school focuses on two thematic packages: [1] Mobilities and multiple transformations in Eurasian Cities and [2] Informal transport and ride-sharing the global North and South. Each package corresponds to the Marshrutka projects’ contribution to two sets of literature: [1] urban geography, anthropology, and political economy of post-socialist states, and [2] critical mobility and critical urban transport studies.
The thematic package mobilities and socio-spatial change in Eurasian Cities will address how changing urban mobility governance and mobility practices relate to – shape and are shaped by – social, economic and political transformations on urban, national and regional levels. This thematic package will focus on, but not be limited, to cities on Eurasian peripheries, primarily Central Asian and South Caucasus cities.
– Sub-topics of the thematic package may include
– Mobility governance and urban economy
– Urban transport and social inequalities
– Transport, urban citizenship and claiming public space
– Intersections of mobility and migration
Informal transport and ride-sharing in the global North and South thematic package will put the research on informal transport, be it marshrutkas, ride-sharing or private taxi sector in Eurasian cities, in dialogue with the research on informal paratransit and new digitally powered ride-sourcing mobility offers in different global regions. This thematic package explicitly welcomes diversity in geographical coverage, and comparisons across cities, as well as across old and new modes of informal transport and ride-sharing practices. Sub-topics of the thematic package include:
– Theories and methods of studying paratransit/informal transport
– Digitalisation of mobility offers
– Transport workers mobilisations
– New chances and inequalities of new mobility offers