ICT-based sub-practices in sustainable development of city transport

DOI

10.2991/ict4s-14.2014.32How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Social practices, everyday life, ethnography, ethnology, environmental sociology, urban transport, travel planning, travel information services, ICT, scenarios, sustainability, user-centred perspective

Abstract

How could use of ICTs make transport systems in large cities sustainable To what degree would then everyday patterns of action, in which use of ICT is becoming increasingly integrated, be an effective force in such sustainable development In this paper we use own and other ethnographic studies of how people travel and plan their travel in large Nordic cities and explore a couple of scientific articles built around scenarios of sustainable development of ICT-supported transport in large cities. In the scenarios the role of ICT was most prominently for travel planning, collective ownership and/or access to vehicles, payment systems and traffic management for environmental purposes. Two of the scenario articles were selected for a closer analysis. In the ethnographic material sub-practices, critical for transport in everyday life, were identified. The aim was to show if and how proposed solutions in the sustainability scenarios are possible and meaningful for urban dwellers to integrate into their everyday travel practice. We found that scenarios of this kind might benefit from being supplemented with certain components. We discuss how actors that currently develop traffic management, mobility and travel planning services are somewhat blind to some significant parts of the whole spectrum of relevant social practices. We also discuss how this could provide conditions for actors and stakeholders to highlight and facilitate sub-practices with ICT use and in line with sustainable development. We tentatively discuss and propose that authorities responsible for urban transport set goals for maintaining and spreading certain practices, related to sustainability impacts. In this way the development of everyday social practice among city residents could be supported as an effective force in the development of the city's transport system, specifically including the development of ICT in relation to transportation.

Copyright

© 2014, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Greger Henriksson
AU  - Anders Gullberg
AU  - Mattias Höjer
AU  - Åsa Nyblom
PY  - 2014/08
DA  - 2014/08
TI  - ICT-based sub-practices in sustainable development of city transport
BT  - Proceedings of the 2014 conference ICT for Sustainability
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 265
EP  - 271
SN  - 2352-538X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/ict4s-14.2014.32
DO  - 10.2991/ict4s-14.2014.32
ID  - Henriksson2014/08
ER  -