We have to be mobility activists!
 
Mobility issues need engagement. That’s our common challenge, which was once again revealed by our 2019 annual conference in Paris.

Looking back, it was a full size successful conference with keynotes, visits, prestigious places and events, and, first of all, a huge number of participants and connections with public and corporate authorities. In this vein, it is worth mentioning that in January the French Parliament approved the Law on Mobility (bye, bye, « transport » ! ; see our previous President’s page). So, the mobility turn now seems to have been finally accepted and our conference might have contributed to this.
 
Thanks to the local team lead by Anne Conchon, the burden of the organization was at the same time a pleasure. Prepared since two years, this conference showed that Humanities and Social Sciences are more than ever useful in order to bring different « régimes de vérité » in the debate. No one possesses the monopoly of truth and as researchers our mission seems obviously to be lead by the ideal. However, we have to pay attention and may not neglect the truth.
The main annual theme was dealing with materialism and its connections to mobility issues. Thinking in a Marxist way, we need to permanentely avoid the magic thoughts and the demagogical anathemas sentenced as the “bright new mobilities world”, which only focuses on a false and fake ecology. T2M’s concerns are global and the convenience of the Western world is sometimes difficult to be assumed. That’s why next year, we’ll go to Shanghai in China.
 
That’s also why, at the end, we must be mobility activists and stay rigourous!
Thanks to all participants again.

Mathieu Flonneau