Alternative Mobility Narratives (Coursera)

Alternative Mobility Narratives Online Course Overview

Ready to imagine a radically different mobility future? This course is about the stories that we tell ourselves about why and how we move. By critically examining our current narratives, we help you think about mobility in a new way. Using systems dynamics modelling, we explore how a mobility innovation (of your choice) impacts our mobility system as a whole, for better or for worse. This course will invite you to reflect on our mainstream mobility narrative built on engineering and economics. But warning: you may end up never looking at mobility in the same way again!

This online course is supported by the EIT Urban Mobility’s Competence Hub. EIT Urban Mobility is an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) that has been working since January 2019 to encourage positive changes in the way people move around cities in order to make them more sustainable and liveable places.

What You Will Learn

• We will reflect on the role of language and narratives in shaping our views on mobility, transport policy and mobility innovation
• You will learn about the implied (but invisible) homo-economicus in our thinking about mobility and our transportation system
• We present 4 alternatives to the homo-economicus model: 1)mobility as unnecessity 2)mobility as commons 3)mobility as play 4)mobility as interaction
• In the final project, you will choose a mobility innovation and critically reflect on it from these alternative and meaningful perspectives.

Course Syllabus

WEEK 1: Why Mobility Language Matters

WEEK 2: The Dominant Narrative: Mobility as Disutility

WEEK 3: Alternative 1: Mobility as Unnecessity

WEEK 4: Alternative 2: Commoning Mobility

WEEK 5: Alternative 3: Mobility as Play

WEEK 6: Alternative 4: Mobility as Interaction

WEEK 7: Final Assignment

Course Instructor

• George Liu
• Marco te Brömmelstroet