Understanding Mobilities for Designing Contemporary Cities

This book explores mobilities as a key to understanding the practices that both frame and generate contemporary everyday life in the urban context. At the same time, it investigates the challenges arising from interpretation of mobility as a socio-spatial phenomenon both in the social sciences and in urban studies. Leading sociologists, economists, urban planners, and architects address the ways in which spatial mobilities contribute in producing diversified uses of the city and describe forms and rhythms of different life practices, including unexpected and unplanned uses and conflicts. The individual sections of the book focus on the role of mobility in transforming contemporary cities; the consequences of interpreting mobility as a socio-spatial phenomenon for urban projects and policies; the conflicts and inequalities generated by the co-presence of different populations due to mobility and by the interests gathered around big mobility projects; and the use of new data and mapping of mobilities to enhance comprehension of cities. Theoretical discussion is complemented by references to practical experiences, leading the reader toward a broader understanding of mobilities in relation to the capacity to analyze, plan, and design contemporary cities.

Paola Pucci, MSArch and PhD in Territorial Planning (IUAV, 1994), is Associate Professor in Urban Planning at Politecnico di Milano. Dr. Pucci coordinates the PhD Course in Urban Planning, Design, and Policy at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano. She has also been a visiting professor at various European universities and taught at the Institut d’Urbanisme, Universite Pierre Mendes, Grenoble (2009–2010). She has taken part in Italian and international research into infrastructure and mobility policies and has published books and articles in Italian and international journals. Her latest publications include work on an accessibility index, mobile phone network data as new sources for urban studies, identification of communities of practice through mobile phone data, and progress toward systemic usage of manifold cell phone network data for urban analysis and planning.

Matteo Colleoni is an Associate Professor in Urban Sociology and holds the Chair of Urban Policies in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at Milan Bicocca University. He is also a member of many national and international organizations and networks on mobility and urban life. His research and teaching addresses issues of urban mobility, accessibility & transport exclusion, metropolitan areas & urban change, and time–space analysis. His most recent relevant publications in this context include La citta attraente. Luoghi pubblici, mobilita e arte contemporanea (2014), Mobility, Accessibility and Social Equity: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Empirical Study in the Metropolitan Areas of Milan, Bologna and Turin (2013) and A GIS methodology for defining the metropolitan areas. The Italian case study (2012).