Keynote speakers
Juliana Mansvelt
Christina Ergler
Malene Freudendal-Pedersen
Juliana Mansvelt (School of People, Environment and Planning. Massey University)
Information and Communication Technology journeys in later life: from pavements to superhighways?
Abstract:
People over the age of 65 are frequently seen as citizens in need of upskilling in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in order to keep abreast of societal change, or as recipients of new technologies designed to facilitate for heath and forms of assisted living. While research has indicated that that uptake of ICT technologies has enabled older individuals to engage with individuals and organisations online and to feel less isolated, little is known about the ways in which older people use technology, or to what effect engagements with such technologies might present opportunities for 'mobilities beyond the body' (Mansvelt & Zorn, 2012). Drawing on theories of practice and qualitative interviews with participants of varying physical mobilities, this paper endeavours to explore the ways in which ICT technologies intersect with, and are embedded in, older peoples' lives, emphasising the ways in which capabilities (and in-capabilities) have a role in shaping older people's sense of identity, their social connectedness, wellbeing and contribution as part of whanau, friendship and community networks. In doing so I reflect on the kinds of discourses which frame relationships between older people, wellbeing and ICT technology, with a view to considering how digital mobilities might bring communities into home spaces, and how home spaces can extend into community.
Biography:
Juliana Mansvelt is an Associate Professor in the Geography Programme, Massey University. She is author of Geographies of Consumption (Sage, 2005), editor of Green Consumerism An A-Z Guide (Sage, 2011), and co-editor of Engaging Geographies: Landscapes, Lifecourses and Mobilities (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014). Juliana's research has involved examining older people's interactions with organisations, and the ways in which life-courses, living standards, mobilities and identities are shaped in relation to consumption practices and choices. She enjoys teaching and is the recipient of a Massey University, a New Zealand Geographical Society and a National New Zealand Tertiary Award for sustained excellence in teaching. Her current research examines older peoples' use of Information and Communication Technologies in the context of their everyday lives.
Christina Ergler (Department of Geography, University of Otago)
Felt, Velcro and fun: pre-schoolers design their ideal community
Abstract:
Policy makers and planners are obliged through the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) to consult with children and seek their opinions and insights, and to view children as social actors in their own rights. Though children of all ages have the right to a voice their participation in urban planning projects, pre-literate children's voices are absent. In this paper, I explore pre-schoolers' experiences in and expectations for urban environments by drawing on a participatory research project conducted in Dunedin, New Zealand. Twenty-six pre-schoolers designed their ideal city in a participatory mapping exercise and voiced their aspirations for social and physical connectedness. Although this age-range has so far been limited in its ability to inform policy and decision makers, I argue that pre-schoolers have the capacity and capability of making valuable contributions to urban design. In the eyes of pre-schoolers, creating a good city means to live in a safe place full of diverse destinations reachable through various modes of transportation and be part of a community in which they can become streetwise and socialise.
Biography:
Christina Ergler is a Lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Otago. She is the author of The Power of Place in Play (Transcript, forthcoming), and co-editor of Children's Health and Wellbeing in Urban Environments (Routledge, 2017). Christina's research interests are at the intersection of geography, sociology and public health and centre on how physical, social and symbolic environments shape and are shaped by the way people play, live, age, fall ill and recover in particular places. Christina is a member of the editorial team for the journal 'Geography Compass' and serves as New Zealand representative for the Young Commission on Health and Environment as part of the International Geographical Union Commission on Health and Environment (IGU CHE). Her work has been recognised with an Emerging Research Award by the New Zealand Geographical Society in 2016. Her current research examines pre-schoolers experiences in and visions for urban environments.
Malene Freudendal-Pedersen (Sustainable Mobilities, Roskilde University, Denmark)
Cycling, Freedom and the emotional aspects of everyday life mobilities
Please note: Malene is a non-flying speaker and will be presenting via zoom.
Abstract
Together with Amsterdam, Copenhagen is often presented as an example of a city leading in the development of sustainable mobilities as evidenced by the high volume of people who cycle on a regular basis. Women in high heels and short skirts, kids alone or in cargo bikes, men in suits and so forth constitutes the very diverse group of Copenhagen cyclists. This is also the truth about Copenhagen, but as like in many other cities around the globe the car still plays a dominant role in Copenhagen. Within urban planning, it seems that contemporary discourses of planning and designing mobilities, have kept an isolated focus on traffic (Jensen and Richardson 2004). Within this tradition the questions on 'why' and 'for what' often seems to be missing. This for most cities results in an optimization of the automobile systems. This is counterproductive to a sustainability agenda when it intensifies and accelerate climate change, the standstill in urban traffic and the ongoing destruction of public spaces (Newman and Kenworthy 2015). In this sense, modern planning paradigms are still 'technocentric' with an ideal of flow and 'zero friction' (Hajer 1999). The dominating neoliberal concept of an economy based on global flows of trade and workforce (Larner 2000; Peck and Tickell 2002) results in an unchallenged principle of 'Seamless mobility' as the pathway for efficient organization of cities. As Urry (2007:20) puts it: 'There is too much transport in the study of travel and not enough society and thinking through the complex intersecting relations between society and transport'. In analyzing everyday life movements, mobilities research offers a comprehensive entrance point when it also emphasizes the cultural and emotional embodied elements of movement (Aldred, 2010; Sheller, 2004; Spinney, 2007; Urry, 2006).
In order to understand the high amount of cycling in Copenhagen I am examining the manifold reasons and stories that different people tell about why they (seldom) cycle and what cycling means to them as part of their mobile everyday life. The focus is on freedom as one of the essential features of mobilities in everyday life. The idea of mobility as a facilitator of freedom is recurring, in both theoretical and empirical literature both within mobilities as well as in social science in general. In the qualitative material, based on interviews with Copenhageners, people repeatedly connect the feeling of freedom to cycling. Interestingly enough there narrations about freedom of cycling are more or less similar to the stories I have heard in earlier work on car driving (Freudendal-Pedersen 2009).
Biography
Malene Freudendal-Pedersen is Associate Professor in Sustainable Mobilities at Roskilde University, Denmark, where she also serves as the head of the PhD program Society, Space and Technology. She has an interdisciplinary background linking sociology, geography, urban planning and the sociology of technology which she for many years have used to investigate everyday life praxis's of mobilities and its significance for (future) cities. She is the co-manager of the international Cosmobilities Network, co-founder and co-editor of the journal 'Applied Mobilities' and the Cosmobilities book series at Routledge. She is the (co)author of several books and papers including the three volume Networked Urban Mobilities (October 2017) and Mobility in Daily life - Between Freedom and Unfreedom (2009).