Microstories of everyday mobilities and opportunities in Bogotá: A tool for bringing capabilities into urban mobility planning

Giovanni Vecchio

Journal of Transport Geography, 2020, vol. 83, issue C

Abstract: The Capabilities Approach is gaining relevance as a theoretical approach that can contribute to consider issues of mobility and justice. The approach helps to better understand how everyday urban mobility can contribute to individuals' capabilities, that is, their ability to freely be and do what one has reason to value. However, in relation to mobility the Capabilities Approach is still missing operational tools that can consider individual specificities and go beyond aggregate evaluations of urban transport systems. Drawing on a research project on urban mobility and human capabilities in Bogotá, the paper discusses how microstories of individual everyday mobilities could be a suitable analytical tool for describing the plural relationship between mobilities and capabilities. Microstories, defined as short accounts of personal everyday mobility experiences, help to account for the features that facilitate or impede individual mobility, and consider the manifold uses of mobility as achieved by each person, according to one's individual choices. The paper discusses three potential contributions of microstories: integrating established evaluative approaches, such as accessibility measures; providing elements for the design of more effective policy actions; expressing features of the mobility experience that, despite their relevance for personal preferences and behaviours, are difficult to include within aggregate evaluations. The usability of microstories as interpretative and operational tools is examined in the light of the obtained results and in relation to policy making processes.

Keywords: Microstories; Everyday mobility; Capabilities; Mobility justice; Accessibility; Bogotá (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692319302662

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:83:y:2020:i:c:s0966692319302662

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2020.102652

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().