AI-Generated Summary
About the Organisation
The WZB Berlin Social Science Center publishes this entry about its research group "Digital Mobility and Social Differentiation." The text presents the group's programme on the transition away from private automobiles.
The Problem Described
- The text argues that the automobile is no longer the source of happiness and professional advancement it once represented.
- It says the old mobility model, designed to maximise movement of goods and persons, "is no longer working."
- The automotive industry is described as locked in path-dependency, with new engines and automated assistance systems not offering alternatives that are both sustainable and economically viable.
- The text states these alternatives are too resource-intensive and do not reduce traffic jams or commuter traffic.
Research Programme
The group focuses on three core tasks:
- Empirical assessment of the social process of parting with private automobiles, including the role of digital platforms and how life plans and mobility practices differ between rural and urban areas.
- Interventions in the political regulation of traffic and public spaces, asking how path-dependent governance can be interrupted to open spaces for experimenting with new practices.
- Consolidation of a theoretical framework for a sociology of transformation, addressing how basic technological structures begin to erode.
Why It Matters for Urban Mobility Policy
The group asks what a socially just and climate-neutral "post-automotive society" would look like and what obstacles stand in the way of this transformation. The text frames its aim as contributing to a better understanding of the dynamics of technical and social transformations.