Between 10 and 12 April I was at the Mobil.TUM conference in Munich, Germany. It was a packed conference, with four very inspiring key-note speeches, two days of innumerable presentations by peers, and a final third day of interactive workshops and a choice of a walking or cycling tour of Munich. You can find more information on the conference here.

My own presentation focused on sharing the idea behind the Mobile Worlds project and the methodology of arts methods and mobile interviews that we are using. It was interesting to see the quite positive reactions of various participants of the conference. Third cultures resonated with at least half of those in the room (I asked), in the sense that they identified with more than one culture, and some approached me after the presentation to talk more about the methods. I was glad to bring in some hands-on and alternative methods to a relatively technical norm in the transport research field at the centre of the conference.

It was especially interesting to take part in the debates on mobility justice, and the importance of incorporating (the right to) immobility in this discussion (referencing António Ferreira’s work on immobility, as well as Karen Lucas’ work, who was one of the keynote speakers).

On the last day I was able to participate in a workshop in which I could apply some drawing and post-it methodologies myself, for TUM’s Mobility Justice Research Group! We explored, again, the topic of mobility justice, in various creative ways and had various group and plenary discussions on the topic. We also used a workshop on the 15minute city to explore mobility justice through specific persona’s and challenges they are faced with. Overall, I could tell that the hands-on methods had at first perhaps a daunting, but then mostly a fun and inspiring effect, especially when they included seeing one-another’s work as well.

Perhaps we made another step, through this, to revolutionizing the future through our mobility debates? It’s certainly not all about mobility, but the mobility justice angle sure does highlight many of the societal issues that would need to be addressed!

Thanks mobil.TUM, thanks to the organizers, and I hope to keep the discussion going!