The role of policy in achieving just transitions towards electric urban mobility: a comparative analysis of four European cities

Keywords: electric mobility; mobility justice; just transition; European cities
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Across European cities, electrification of urban transport is in full swing. The emphasis in policy and public discourse is, however, on efficiency and speed of change; considerations of justice tend to receive much less attention. This paper considers if and how urban transport policy is contributing to just transitions towards electric mobility in four European cities that have seen different levels of uptake of electric mobility to date: Oslo (Norway, very high uptake), Utrecht (Netherlands, high uptake), Bristol (UK, some uptake) and Poznan (Poland, low uptake). The paper first introduces a theoretical approach that brings together insights from literatures on mobility justice and just transitions with Foucauldian thinking on governmentality and apparatuses of power. It then offers a comparative discourse analysis of 10-15 key policy documents from each geographical context. It shows that questions of distributive justice are considered in each of the four cities even if the precise nature and prominence of those questions differs between the urban areas. Recognition justice and deliberative justice are also considered albeit highly selectively, to different degrees and in different ways across the cities. Epistemic justice is given hardly any consideration in all cities. The paper concludes that just transitions towards electric mobility in the four cities will require the production of qualitatively different forms of knowledge vis-à-vis those that currently prevail. This is because the circulation of different forms of knowledge has the potential to open up different problematisations, subject formations and techniques for intervention in urban mobility configurations.