Belts and Roads: Governmental Visions for Transport and Mobility. Strategic Transport Infrastructures and the State

The International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T²M) calls for papers to be presented at its 18^th annual conference, which will take place in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, on 22 – 24 October 2020.

The Local Organising Committee of T²M invites all academic researchers and practitioners working on history, sociology, politics and planning of transport, traffic and mobility to participate in the Conference, a scientific meeting dedicated to the study of strategic transport infrastructures and the state.

The Conference will take place at Tongji University in Shanghai. The city provides an ideal setting for discussing the role of the state for big transport infrastructure planning. The conference will include an opportunity to visit China and its Belt and Road initiative.

The T²M Annual Conference is open to papers and sessions on any field or topic of historical and social science mobility studies. However, we especially invite the submission of single papers or full sessions (three papers) on any topic related to “strategic transport infrastructures and the state”.

The conference title focuses on the history and future of governmental transport infrastructures in vision, planning, and implementation. Sessions should analyse these governmental programs and their economic, political and military implications.We encourage submissions for the analysis of strategic governmental planning from urban to intercontinental transport.

Governmental visions and plans were absolutely crucial for the erection of transport infrastructures throughout history, but the actual motivation for the selection of this year’s specific theme is the official Chinese vision and policy for transcontinental economic exchange and infrastructures,  which in 2013 was named „One Belt, One Road“ (OBOR)  (Yīdài Yīlù, 一带一路). The name recenty changed to Belt and Road Initiative （BRI）to avoid the focus on one connection alone, as the policy includes many transport connections via land and sea. Sometimes, the initiative is called the new economic Silk Road (Xīn Sīchóuzhīlù,新丝绸之路). The term „new silk road“ refers to the economic connections between China and Europe since the second century BC and throughout medieval and early modern history. However, the term „silk road“ was coined by the geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen not before the 1870s.

Tongji University, which is one of the leading research universities in China and in planning sciences often cited as number one in the country, has strong international relations. The University has created colleges with European Universities since many years, e.g. CDHK (Chinesisch-Deutsches Hochschulkolleg) and IFCIM (Institut Franco-Chinois d’Ingénierie et de Management). The T2M conference will take place in the premises of CHDK. IFCIM will invite to a second event on “Transport with a High Level of Service” (THNS2020) at the same time. The organizing committee does  comprise members  from Tongji University, CDHK, Center for Global  History of Shanghai University, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing) and Nanjing University.

In order to advance collaboration between universities and policy makers, both academic researchers and practitioners working on transport and border issues are most welcome to attend.

It is a T²M tradition that paper and session proposals are not limited to the general topic. We ask for paper and session proposals for all themes in the field of transport, traffic and mobility. By this, the annual conference will give, in a broad way, an up-to-date overview on the field of historical transport and mobility studies.                         

The Conference language is English.

DEADLINES

The final deadline for proposals is April 15, 2020. The proposal must include a short abstract, the title of the presentation, the name of the presenter(s), CV, e-mail address of the author(s), contact number and information on audiovisual needs. This must be sent to submissions@t2m.org. We will notify participants of acceptance on May 15^t, 2013 at the latest.

The deadline for the full paper (6-8 pages) is August 15^, 2020 as we will distribute all papers beforehand in an online version. Presenters at the Conference may assume that their paper has been read and they should prepare a fifteen-minute summary to allow for debate and discussion within the session.

POSTERS

Submission of a fully completed poster form is mandatory for all speakers, for T2M wants to invest more energy into communication. Deadline of final posters is August 15^, 2020 to submissions@t2m.org. The poster format should be a pdf. It will be published in A2; therefore pictures should be in fine resolution and letters in appropriate size.

Posters will be judged. The best posters will receive a prize.

 T²M TRAVEL GRANTS

Ph.D. students and scholars from emerging countries are encouraged to apply for travel grants at T²M. Please send in your application together with the proposal at:secretary@t2m.org. (Please download a travel grant form at Travel Grant Form.

VISA

The participants may need to obtain a visa. The organisers of T²M are prepared to assist delegates with obtaining a visa by sending official invitation letters upon request. This letter however does not involve any commitments by the Conference organisers to cover fees, accommodation, travel expenses or other costs connected with participation in the Conference.

To obtain an invitation to T²M, delegates must first complete the registration form and settle all conference and related fees. Delegates are encouraged to make their invitation requests at their earliest convenience.

Please note that delegates are responsible for their own travel arrangements, including determining the visa requirements for travel to Shanghai for the Conference. If you are considering participating in any post-conference tours, please make sure that you make the necessary visa arrangements

The T²M organisers will not be held responsible for a visa not granted. Failure to obtain a visa will not be accepted as grounds for refund of any fees or any other costs paid to the Conference.

COMMITTEES

Organizing Committee

Siegfried Zhiqiang Wu, Vice President Tongji UniversityPan Haixiao, Tongji UniversityKeping Li, Tongji University

Sigrun Abels, China Center, TU Berlin

Hans-Liudger Dienel, TU Berlin

Jean-Francois Janin,

Etienne Faugier, Ecole des Mines ParisTech ISIGE, T²M Association

Program Committee

Keping Li, Tongji UniversityPan Haixiao, Tongji University

Iris Borowy, Center for Global History, Shanghai University

Hans-Liudger Dienel, Berlin University of TechnologyGijs Mom, Eindhoven University of TechnologyMathieu Flonneau, Paris 1 University, President T²MInes von Racknitz, Nanjing UniversityRong Xinchun, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, BeijingZhang Xiuli, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences

Questions concerning the Annual Conference to our T2M Executive Secretary
Etienne Faugier
secretary@t2m.org

The T²M website: www.t2m.org

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/T2Minternational/

Programme-T2M-Paris-octobre-2019-30-09-2019-web

Affiche-A3-Congres-T2M-Paris-octobre-2019-2102019-cmjn-print

Introduction

This book discusses the economics of transport infrastructure and the economic theorizing around transport infrastructure from 1850 to today. Transport infrastructure systems are continuously evolving over time. Since the mid-1800s these systems have grown in complexity and outreach. They have been important drivers of economic development but have also been important as economic agents in themselves. Over time transport infrastructure systems have taken on different functions as providers of simpler transport services or more developed value chain components. Transport infrastructure has also been a source for different arguments about economic theory and practice.
Transport infrastructure systems are analysed from an institutional perspective where the long-term development of the ownership and financing of the systems, as well as the connection to different policy areas are elaborated. A longitudinal study of Sweden’s transport infrastructure policy is used to exemplify driving factors causing change and transformation of the systems over time with different scale and scope.  

Call for Paper

International Conference of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T²M)

Paris 2019

Mobilities and Materialities:
Building Bridges Between Past and Future

Paris, 16^th-19^th October, 2019

Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University, Paris Sorbonne, Mondial.Tech

Deadline for proposals for papers and sessions: March 2019, 1^st

Mobility clearly has a strong material dimension. In these times of demand for “fluid” mobility, “autonomous” and electric vehicles, shared transport, the physical infrastructure that underpins and makes mobility possible is subject to profound changes (borders of energy supply, route 2.0, etc.). Infrastructure networks and transport services have also undergone significant material transformations throughout the history of the long term/“longue durée” (macadam coating, steam engines, electrification…).

Generally, vehicles, equipments and infrastructures are considered separately in studies dealing with transport and mobility. However these infrastructures (roads, waterways, harbors, airport, bike paths…) are essential to the physical conditions of traffic in all modes of transport (coaches, cars, buses, boats, planes…). Looking at mobility from the perspective of material culture is a way of articulating these two dimensions and of approaching infrastructure and means of transport based on the most concrete and visible aspects.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the concept of material culture was an important heuristic tool, mobilized in particular by historians and archaeologists. Nowadays, this attention to material issues is being significantly renewed in different disciplines to understand the relationships that societies and individuals have with things and their social life. From manufacture to consumption, the function, appropriation and status of objects evolve over time and according to whoever handles them. This question of materialities is just as essential to the understanding of mobility and its technical, economic and social transformations.

The aim of this interdisciplinary conference is to deepen our understanding of these infrastructures and mobility ecosystems: their functions, the concerned actors, the spatial stakes, the logistical issues, the consequences of new supply chains, and what controversies and challenges they bring, with particular attention to their materiality.

Proposals for papers and sessions on one or more of the following topics will be strongly encouraged, although all contributions are welcome:

• Archeological evidence of mobility
• Museum collections, displays and transportation heritage
• Connexions between academic field and technical or economic stakeholders
• Innovation dynamics
• Mobility practices, social uses and consumption patterns
• Places for mobilities (infrastructures, gas station, fuel pump, refinery, terminal, drives in, signaling…)
• Worlds of objects (toys, advertising, tickets, tenues…)
• Duration and obsolescence
• Speed and slow mobilities
• Materiality and dematerialization…
• Tourism issues (travel guides, apps…)

This mobility history conference aims to bridge research approaches, welcoming proposals from different disciplines dealing with mobility studies (history, sociology, anthropology, geography, economy, planning studies, business history, architecture, design, communication, archeology, etc.) We particularly encourage the submission of interdisciplinary panels or sessions.

Deadline and submission Procedures

Individual paper proposals must include summary in english no longer than a half page (300 words) and a short 100/150-words biographical note (with indication of academic title or professional position, adress and e-mail address).

For a session, please send a general presentation (300 words), an abstract of each paper (300 words maximum) and a short 100/150-words biographical note for each speaker.

Special attention with a session regarding practices of mobility teaching and poster sessions will be appreciated.

Deadline for proposals for papers and sessions: March 2019, 1^st

Letter of acceptance: May 2019, 1^st

Once an abstract or panel has been accepted, there will be a strict deadline for conference registration and full payment at least three months prior to the conference in order to appear on the program.

Travel grants et Awards

T2M offers a number of travel grants for young scholars from developing countries, who are heartily welcome to apply. T2M has also a long tradition of “best-paper” awards.

All proposals must be submitted on the website :

T2M Conference 2019 website

Informations email adress : submissions@t2m.org

Contacts (Local Committee)

Anne Conchon Anne.Conchon@univ-paris1.fr

Mathieu Flonneau mattaflo@aol.com

Etienne Faugier etienne.faugier@gmail.com

Contact Info:

Etienne Faugier

T2M Secretary

Contact Email: secretary@t2m.org

Organisation

The organisation of the Congress brings together a wide array of public and private institutions. The Congress will be held at the Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University and at Mondial.Tech.

The scientific committee is made up of : Anne Conchon (Chair of the Committee, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University), Mathieu Flonneau (vice-chair of the Committee, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University), Etienne Faugier (Associate researcher, LARHRA), Alice Milor (Sorbonne University), Laurence Nye (Sorbonne University), Dhan Zunino Singh (Universidad de Quilmes), Martin Emanuel (Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg), Victor Marquez (Independent Scholar, Mexico), Pierre Barrieau (UQAM).

The Local Organisational Committee is made up of : Anne Conchon (Chair of the Committee, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University), Mathieu Flonneau (vice-chair of the Committee, Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne University), Etienne Faugier (Associate researcher, LARHRA), Anne-Marie Checcozzo (FIEV), Stéphane Levesque (URF), Stève Bernardin (Marne-la-Vallée University), Yves Bouvier (Sorbonne University), Aurélien Delpirou (Ecole d’urbanisme de Paris / Lab’Urba), Jean-François Doulet (Paris-Est Créteil Val-de-Marne University), Caroline Gallez (IFSTTAR), Vincent Guigueno (Quai Branly Museum), Maxime Huré (Perpignan University), Laurence Nye (Sorbonne University), Arnaud Passalacqua (Paris Diderot University), Sébastien Richez (Postal History committee), Nathalie Roseau (Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech), Florence Brachet Champsaur (Railways and History), Louis Baldasseroni (Marne-la-Vallée University), Alice Milor (Sorbonne University), Guillaume Kozubski (FFC), Nicolas Hautière (IFSTTAR), Marc Desportes (History Committee of MTES), Marie-Noelle Polino (Politic responsible of patrimonial groups and Association), Julien Vick (Road Equipment Association), Pierre-Louis Debar (CCFA), Michele Muhlmann-Weill (Automobile Club Association).

Dhan Zunino Singh, Guillermo Giucci y Paola Jirón (eds.), Términos clave para los estudios de la movilidad en América Latina [Keywords for the study of mobilities in Latin America] (Buenos Aires, Biblos, 2018)

Prologue by Noel Salazar.

If ‘all that is solid melts into air’, it is in large part because movement has become the organizing principal characteristic of modern times. The multiplicity of expressions that mobility adopts, including the immobile infrastructure that supports it, suggest that we inhabit a world in flux, made up of inter-spaces where groups of people, objects, and ideas converge and disperse with great rapidity. How can we understand the actual trajectories, movements, and directions of these movements? What do the ‘mobilities turn’ and the ‘consciousness of a mobile world’ mean, and how do they help us better to make sense of our condition as mobile subjects?

This handbook, the first of its kind to appear in the Spanish language, seeks to provide some preliminary answers to these questions, particularly in the context of contemporary mobilities in Latin America. A collaborative effort from a diverse group of researchers, largely from Latin America itself, but also including scholars based in Europe and North America, the handbook invites readers to enter the field of mobilities through twenty two terms, which deploy, combine, and develop approaches from a range of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, history, geography, architecture, engineering, and literature, and engage with current scholarship in urban studies, transport, the environment, migration, and tourism. This selection is a pertinent approximation that offers a roadmap of concepts, debates, themes, and phenomena around mobility.

Keywords: accessibility and daily mobility, aeromobility, automobility, walking, circulation, right to mobility, gender, immobility, placing in motion, migration, moving with objetcs, children mobility, residential mobility, mobility and tourism, passengers, performance, networks, rhythm, road safety, transport, sustainable transport, travel.

More information: https://terminosclavemovil.wixsite.com/terminos-clave-libro

By Aparajita Mukhopadhyay

Salisbury University (USA)

This post is adopted from my monograph manuscript in progress and as such is part of a wider and ongoing project. Aparajita is an Assistant Professor of South Asian History at Salisbury University, Maryland, USA. Her forthcoming monograph is a social history of railways in colonial north India. For more information of Aparajita’s work, visit her Academia.edu page.

The first trains rolled out in India from Bombay (modern Mumbai) on 21^st April, 1853. By the turn of the twentieth century, the region boasted of the fourth largest railway network in the world. This impressive growth however, happened within a colonial context. India was the premier colony of the British Empire, the so-called ‘jewel in the crown’. Thus, railway development in India was a colonial project, and it was initially promoted and developed by the English East India Company and was eventually taken over the British Crown and the Parliament in 1858 after the transfer of power from the former to the latter after a violent ‘mutiny’ by the Indian soldiers of the English East India Company army. Not surprisingly therefore, railways in colonial India was primarily envisioned as an economic tool designed to transport raw materials such as cotton and other products from the interior of India to the ports and subsequently to the factories of industrial Britain. Additionally, the railway tracks were expected to provide military benefits to the colonial state in India, especially by facilitating faster movement of troops across the vast stretches of India in case of any political and military insurrections. The events of 1857 alluded above, provided an apposite context to expand the existing railway network also as an interconnected web of military posts and cantonments and buttressed the claims of the colonial administrators who wanted a faster and better mode of transport.

In short, the viability of trains in India was largely thought in practical terms and was aimed fulfil the needs of the British Empire. This however, is not unique in case of colonial India, as technology transfer in a colonial context is rarely, if ever, directed towards benefitting the colonised. Nevertheless, the colonial state as well as the railway promoters couched the economic and military advantages accruing out of railway expansion in India in a language of progress and ‘modernity’. Once again, the Indian case is not singular. European colonists across the world justified new technical intrusions in their colonies using a language of scientific progress that used, to borrow Michael Adas’s famous book title, ‘machines as measures of men’ and invariably found the colonised lacking. Consequently, the colonists argued that introduction of new technologies or machines were to bring the colonies at par with the former, even in a socio-cultural sense and thus ultimately signified a positive transition for which the colonised should rather be grateful.

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Jørgen Burchardt has just published a book, entitled Gods på vej. Vejtransportens danmarkshistorie (Goods on roads: Denmark’s road transport history).

Gods på vej. Vejtransportens danmarkshistorie. Forsyningskæder, teknologi, regulering.

[Goods on roads: Denmark’s road transport history – Supply chains, technology, regulation]

by Jørgen Burchardt

1,518 pp. National Museum of Science and Technology and Kulturbøger, 2017.

Jørgen Burchardt, one of the founding members of T2M, has written a book on road transport development. The history totals 1,500 pages and is divided into three volumes. The first volume tells the story of the first horse-drawn carriages and moves forward to an era in which more than 95% of all cargo was transported on motorized trucks. The technical and infrastructure developments are described in detail, including road transport in connection with rail transport and shipping. The vehicles’ technical developments from small horse-drawn vehicles to today’s reliable, large, and rapid trucks are presented, of course, but the story of the technical facilities of the rest of the infrastructure is also told. Road construction had long been a vulnerable issue, which imposed restrictions on vehicle size, but the development of a gentle low-pressure balloon tire and new road constructions from the 1950s made it possible to repeal many of the restrictions on the use of vehicles. Road transport must be seen in its entire context, that is, in which all parts of the infrastructure change in conjunction with one another. Important elements include the use of standardized pallets, which forklifts use to ensure a rapid transfer between storage and transport.

The second volume shows the transport of different types of supply chains and explains what brings technique to work: organization, collaboration, and governmental regulation. The volume ends with five cases of new transport systems totally transforming industries. The first is about the distribution of the retail trade’s shift from transport based on rail to one based on trucking. The second is about the altered milk collection in agriculture from collection via milk churns to collection via milk tankers. The next case is about the introduction of the first containers in Denmark for bacon exports to England, and another case is similarly about a new mode of transport with prefabricated concrete elements that made it possible to build high-rise buildings and large halls. The last case shows how transport by truck after the 2nd World War made it possible to move industrial and commercial enterprises from narrow locations close to ports and railway stations out to cheaper land, which allowed for a rational layout of production and stocks, with parking for regional mobility and for future expansion.

The third volume contains an overview of Danish and international research and a discussion of the historical development of transport. A continuous theme in the book is the concept of supply chains. A chapter reviews the history of the concept, where it is used in a normative science of managing supply chains, Supply Chain Management. The book also shows, however, that supply chains have always existed. The chains are often very different; each chain has its seasonality, commercial agreements, special transport, etc.

The volume concludes with a detailed subject index, notes, and bibliography. The years 1950 to 1980 are referred to most, as society in those years underwent an economic recovery that will probably never be surpassed. Here, transport plays an important role in the creation of today’s high-tech society. It is due not only to the technical development, but equally to their organizational framework. The book therefore contains several chapters on the establishment of voluntary standards for social regulation and the ongoing regulatory framework, including international agreements. The book’s central view is that the effective high-tech community has been so thoroughly regulated and so complicated that complexity makes future changes difficult. Supply chains consist of so many dependent links that a change in one section of the chain brings changes in many other sections of the chain.

The book is in the leading Danish historical news service, Historie-Online, described as “Jørgen Burchardt’s masterful performance has given us an extraordinary work of 1,518 pages, which is both an encyclopedia of Danish land transport and an continuous description of the land transport development 1950-1980. The work is and will be the foundation for the future transport historical research in Denmark and perhaps also in some of the neighboring countries which like us, lacks an institutional home, a transport historical/road historical museum.”

Burchardt has carried out the research for the National Museum of Science and Technology.

The book is written in Danish, but there is a rich English summary in 59 pages.

Leer en español

By Melina Piglia

INHUS-UNMdP/CONICET (Argentina)

This post is adapted from the conference paper and presentation that the author developed for the 2016 meeting of T2M in Mexico City. Melina is a professor at Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina, and a researcher at National Council for Science and Technology (CONICET), focused on the study of the history of mobility, transport and tourism in Argentina during the twentieth century. For more information on Melina’s work, visit her Academia.edu page, https://mdp.academia.edu/MelinaPiglia 

The rapid transformation of aviation as a form of transport presented a series of challenges and opportunities to nation-states. In the new setting that emerged at the end of World War II, with the United States as the new hegemonic—and aerial—power, the survival of local airlines against devastating North American competition depended on protectionist measures that national governments offered. This protection would become possible, curiously, in the new institutions (based on democratic principles) designed at the beginning of the 1940s (in the context of the fight against fascism) for the creation of a postwar global order under U.S. leadership.

In the process of establishing the International Association for Civil Aviation (ICAO), U.S. pressure in favor of “open skies” encountered strong and effective resistance. Early on, this resistance was led by the outgoing global power, Great Britain, which opposed U.S. claims at a 1944 meeting in Chicago; instead, the UK proposed regulating the use of air routes. Without a multilateral agreement that governed aviation, member countries agreed to five “freedoms of the air.”

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Massimo Moraglio’s new book, Driving Modernity: Technology, Experts, Politics, and Fascist Motorways, 1922–1943, will be published by Berghahn in February 2017.

Summary: On March 26th, 1923, in a formal ceremony, construction of the Milan–Alpine Lakes autostrada officially began, the preliminary step toward what would become the first European motorway. That Benito Mussolini himself participated in the festivities indicates just how important the project was to Italian Fascism. Driving Modernity recounts the twisting fortunes of the autostrada, which—alongside railways, aviation, and other forms of mobility—Italian authorities hoped would spread an ideology of technological nationalism. It explains how Italy ultimately failed to realize its mammoth infrastructural vision, addressing the political and social conditions that made a coherent plan of development impossible.

To see book flyer, click here.

For more details, go to Berghahn Books website

President’s Letter 

11 December 2015

Dear Members and Friends of T²M,

During this week of COP21 climate talks in Paris our thoughts turn to the history of transportation: how did we arrive at the current carbon-intensive system — in which at least one quarter of CO₂emissions are attributed to transportation — and how might we transition out of it? Will this transition proceed in different ways in different parts of the world, and where are the most encouraging developments? Based on our understandings of transport history, how can we contribute to the post-automobility transition?

At the same time, our world at present seems disturbed by the dark mobilities brought about by various kinds of violence: the cloaked mobility of terrorism and terrorists; the deathly maneuvers of drones and aerial warfare; the rapid-fire circulation of guns, violent ideologies, and social media recruitment campaigns; the persistent threats to the black body in public space in America; and the resurgence of xenophobic, populist, nationalist movements and attacks on minorities. How can our field also contribute to public deliberations about borders, security, migration, and the power relations of mobility and immobility?

Yet amidst this December darkness there is always also some light. Some public leaders are reiterating the values of protecting refugees, interfaith dialogue, and open communication. World leaders may reach an agreement on reducing CO₂  emissions. The emergence of ‘disruptive’ technologies based on sharing and fractional use may well undermine the 20th century system of automobility, and new policies for urban planning are beginning to limit car use in many major cities.

All of these changes are the bread and butter of historians of transport, traffic, and mobility, linked to our field’s deep and abiding interests in complex socio-technical systems, the making and unmaking of infrastructure, local and global change, urban form and policy mobilities, and the differentials of power and justice that inform all of these. So I remain hopeful for our ability to move forward in 2016 toward more sustainable and socially just systems of mobility, and I trust that members of T²M will play an important part in bringing these about around the world.

In line with these hopes we look forward to many important developments within T²M itself. First, we warmly anticipate (and are busy readying for) our 13th Annual Conference in Mexico City in 2016 on “Mobilities: Space of Flows and Friction.” The Call for Papers has been circulating – be sure to spread the word far and wide. The conference will take place in the beautiful Chapultepec Park from October 27-30th, with an Opening Address from Mexico’s Secretary of the Environment, Tanya Müller Garcia, and several exciting Keynote Speakers whom we will be announcing soon.

Second, we are delighted to be moving forward with the complete redesign of the T²M website, along with a new conference management system, both of which we hope to launch in January. So please look out for the announcement, and once online, please spread the news far and wide.

Third, we are taking great strides with our journals, making online access and fully searchable back issues available for the Journal of Transport History, which has just moved to a new publisher, Sage; online access to our Yearbook, Mobility in History, now available from Berghahn, along with the option of discounted subscriptions to Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies; as well as the option for discounted subscriptions to Mobilities, published by Taylor and Francis.

All of these options for those either joining T²M or renewing membership will be clearly laid out on the new website. For current members, if you were expecting a mailing of JTH, we will instead be sending out instructions for opening your new online subscription with our new publisher Sage.

I want to thank all of you who are volunteering your work on our Executive Committee, our Local Organizing Committee and Program Committee for the conference, and the many other committees that keep T²M going behind the scenes throughout the year. Finally, I want to wish you all a light of hope for this December and a Happy New Year for 2016.

Best wishes,

Mimi Sheller

President, T²M

President’s Letter – Mimi Sheller

September 2016

Dear T²M members,

It is just a little over a month until our annual conference meets in Mexico City! Registrations are complete and if you have not already done so be sure to book your travel and accommodation and submit your final paper. We look forward to a rich array of panels on topics such as Mobility Justice, Politics and Hope, Mobility in Transition, Trans-Border Mobilities, Gendered Mobilities, Tourism, Placemaking, and sessions on various aspects of automobility, cycling, railways, and aviation history. We are also looking forward to keynote addresses by Brazilian historian of automobility Guillermo Giucci, cultural geographer of mobilities Tim Cresswell, and museum curator Debbie Douglas. I want to thank our Local Organizing Committee for their tireless efforts to prepare the conference: Víctor Márquez (Chair), Dhan Zunino Singh, Tomás Errázuriz, and Maximiliano Velázquez.

This has been a year of many developments in the realm of transport, from the ongoing expansion of car-sharing or ride-on-demand services to the arrival of self-driving cars in some cities; the expansion of the Panama Canal and the crisis of over-supply in the freight shipping industry; the spread of urban bike-sharing programs and growing number of bicycle commuters in many cities; the continuing ‘automobilization’ of mega-cities in Asia and Africa, and the continuing efforts at a renewable energy shift in many countries. All of this, and more, is at the heart of transport history and mobility studies: What do these social, economic and cultural changes mean for how people organize their lives and societies? How do we understand the past in new ways in light of present challenges? And how can re-thinking this history help us steer towards a better future?

We hope you have been enjoying our refreshed website launched this year with a new format featuring a special section for conference announcements and events; Recent News items including publication announcements, View from the Street stories, and In the Spotlight interviews; and new convenient access to our range of publications: the T²M Yearbook: Mobility in History, the Journal of Transport History, and specially priced subscriptions for members to Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, and Mobilities. I especially want to thank our website committee for advancing this wonderful transformation, including Julia Hildebrand, Hiroki Shin, and Andrey Vozyanov.

As our excellent Yearbook editor Kyle Shelton points out in his Preface to Vol. 8, we have decided with our publisher Berghahn to shift the T²M Yearbook: Mobility in History to a digital format, allowing for the use of color photos and graphics and online access to all back issues, as well as great cost savings. Publishing is transforming these days into new accessible online formats. With the move of the Journal of Transport History to a new publisher with SAGE, it is also now being published digitally. With these changes we will be publishing engaging shorter state of the field pieces, interviews, commentaries and discussion pieces on our own website platform. Please note that you can now also sign up for our T²M Newsletter which will be delivered electronically – please register from the t2m.org website. We also invite all members to send in items to our busy team of Newsletter editors Robin Kellermann, Andrey Vozyanov, and Thiago Allis.

Over the last few years T²M has successfully expanded to include not only historians of transport and mobility, but also sociologists, geographers, anthropologists, media studies scholars, and other disciplines. We have cemented our relationship with the Cosmobilities Network through hosting conferences together at Drexel (2014) and Caserta, Italy (2015) and at our Annual Members Meeting this year we will hear a proposal to host our 2017 conference in association with the Centre for Mobilities Research and the Institute for Social Futures at Lancaster University in England. It is a period of building connections and linking institutions across our dynamic interdisciplinary field, which is drawing greater international recognition.

I want to thank our Vice Presidents whose terms are coming to a close this year: Marie-Noëlle Polino, Massimo Moraglio, and Sven Kesselring. We look forward to electing new Vice Presidents and members of the Executive Committee during our Annual Member’s Meeting, and electronic balloting will also be available next month. If there is anyone else who would like to be nominated to run for the EC please submit your name right away to Ralf Roth, chair of the elections committee, or by contacting secretary@t2m.org.

I look forward to seeing those of you who will be joining us in Mexico City, and for those who cannot make the transatlantic crossing this year, we look forward to seeing you in Europe next year, as we continue to rotate our conference location on a biannual basis.

Best wishes,

Mimi Sheller

President, T²M

We have sadly lost our esteemed colleague John Urry, who died on March 18th. John gave so many of us the spark of curiosity that led to our interest in mobility studies. He had a unique way of synthesizing diverse fields and starting new conversations. His modest brilliance opened up new avenues of thought and new insights, without insisting on any school of theory or disciplinary limits. Through his kind encouragement and searching questions he helped so many students grow into better scholars, and set sail to so many new careers. We will miss him deeply as a caring teacher, a collaborator, a colleague and friend.  

John’s deeply historically informed perspective on mobilities has advanced new agendas across a whole array of diverse fields, including transport history and transportation studies. Its impact is still rippling outwards, from his early work on spatial theory and tourism studies, to his recent interests in climate change, complexity, and social futures. Now that seam of productivity comes to a kind of an end, but not the energy that it contains and the many sparks that will continue to fly off of it.

 John Urry’s funeral is taking place on Monday April 4th at 2.45 in the Lancaster and Morecombe Crematorium. This will be followed (from 4pm) by the sharing of memories at the Midland Hotel Morecambe, where it is intended not only to mourn but also to celebrate his life.

 An inspiring page of tributes is being gathered by Lancaster University at this memorial page. He will be in our thoughts and continue to influence our work for many decades to come. T2M will honour John’s life and his work at our upcoming conference, as we continue with the boundless project of mobility studies which has brought so many of us together.  

Mimi Sheller

President, T2M