PUBLIC PUT IN MOTION - Public Participation and Urban Transport Innovation. The European light rail renaissance and user involvement, city revitalisation, and the urban mobility agenda.
Overview
Background & policy context:
Since the 1970s, we can identify a coincidence of four societal evolutions in cities throughout Europe: the emergence of new social movements (1), new forms of direct deliberative democracy (2), new emphasis for urban space and culture (3) and the renaissance of the urban tram (4).
Objectives:
The research project focused on the analysis of the mutual relations between tram revival and the other three societal developments, with special emphasis on the emergence of participative democracy and passenger involvement in public transport.
Aim of the project was to achieve the research targets as well as to enhance the researcher's profile, adding competencies on user involvement and public participation theory in the urban arena to his previous political and historical experience, guaranteeing him a professional maturity. This tuition and research path strongly presented elements of European comparative analysis, on a highly topical theme, having relevant implications for EC policies, culture, economy, and investments.
Methodology:
The empirical research of the project was carried out in a comparative way, focusing on six European cities and consequently six case studies, to understand how basically similar problems and tasks were identified and solved in very different ways. This 24-month training-through-research project used methods from historiography and political theory in a comparative approach and in combination with participation theory, governance issues, the idea of Large Technical Systems and town planning. The starting concept was that mobility research had landed in a cul-de-sac due to engineering, economic and planning approaches to transport studies. The results of the study, providing comparative European insights, would not only be valuable for historical and political sciences, but could also be highly relevant for future planning of citizen and passenger involvement in urban transport forecast, governance, and decision making.
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