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New Article by Lyubomir Pozharliev on Sofia’s Trolleybuses and their Decolonial Implications

The Bulgarian Sociologičeski Problemi Journal recently published their final issue of 2024, with the overarching topic being “From one Language into another”: Social Problems Seen Through the Eyes of Bulgarian Scholars in Foreign Countries (Issue Editors: Raia Apostolova, Neda Deneva). CoMoDe’s own Lyubomir Pozharliev contributed an intriguing article to the edition with the title Decolonial Insights into Public Transport in Sofia: “Eastern” Trolleybuses Vs. “Western” E-Buses.

Abstract: The battery industry, i.e. battery-powered electric cars and buses, has been on the rise for the past decade or so. Several municipalities in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and elsewhere in the world are promoting and advertising their progressiveness by being ready to introduce (or have already introduced) the new battery-electric buses wherever and whenever possible. On the other hand, trolleybus technology is still widespread in post-socialist countries and offers an electric alternative to the battery-powered bus. This paper attempts to address the introduction of the new technology from the per- spective of the older technology – the trolleybus one. Based on interviews with local experts and data from the Bulgarian capital, the paper will explore the potential of the decolonial perspective in addressing public transport developments in a post-socialist, Eastern European context.

The full article in Bulgarian, as part of Issue 2/56 in Sociologičeski Problemi Journal, can be accessed here (no free access).

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New Article by Bermet Borubaeva and Egor Muleev on the Trolleybus Case in Bishkek

Published by the Berliner Gazette on the 11th of November 2024

In “Governing ‘Green’ Public Infrastructure: The Trolleybus Case in Bishkek,” Bermet Borubaeva and Egor Muleev take us on a ride through the tangled wires of Bishkek’s trolleybus saga—a tale of sustainability, bureaucracy, and a city at a crossroads. At the heart of the drama is Bishkek’s trolleybus system, the capital’s only electric public transport with enough capacity to avoid daily gridlock, yet it’s on the brink of extinction. City Hall, nudged by foreign consultants and seduced by shiny new e-buses, wants to ditch the old for the new—even though the old is green, functional, and beloved by the people. What follows is a classic case of public infrastructure caught in the gears of bureaucracy, where short-term decisions and backroom deals hold more weight than long-term planning.

The article further explores the role of local governance, workers’ struggles, and grassroots resistance in shaping the future of public infrastructure, using the trolleybus as a case study for broader issues in urban mobility and democratic accountability.

Read the whole article here.

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New review by Lyubomir Pozharliev on “If Cars Could Walk: Postsocialist Streets in Transformation” ed. by Ger Duijzings and Tauri Tuvikene

The October 2024 issue of Technology and Culture is officially out and with that, a fresh review on the recently published “If Cars Could Walk: Postsocialist Streets in Transformation” ed. by Ger Duijzings and Tauri Tuvikene” by Lyubomir Pozharliev, part of the CoMoDe research group, has been published.

Read an excerpt of the review & get access here: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/940504

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Reclaiming I. Chavchavadze Avenue

A ifl.blog entry by Elene Khundadze

The rehabilitation and fundamental transformation of one of Tbilisi’s main thoroughfares – the Chavchavadze Avenue – sparked debates and conflicts over the city’s new transport policy. Many protested that only one car lane was left and car-parking space was reduced in favor of giving space to public transport, cycling and pedestrian infrastructures. Some found the counter-flow organization of bus lanes dangerous and problematic. Yet, others embraced the reform as a key step towards more socio-spatially just urban and mobility planning. In what follows, I retell the history of the transformation of the avenue. I illustrate how precarious and institutionally challenging the accomplishment of such a street redesign can be. I also suggest that the story of redesigning Chavchavadze Avenue shows that even under unfair political rule and precarious institutional settings impressive urban changes are possible. Continue reading “Reclaiming I. Chavchavadze Avenue”

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Knowledge Production in Public Transport: Georgian Symposium of the CoMoDe group

During the third weekend of March 2023, the team of the IfL project Contentious mobilities through a decolonial lens (CoMoDe) hosted – jointly with the Ilia State University – a Symposium in Tbilisi, Georgia. The name of the event was “Knowledge Production in Public Transport – Normativities. Actors. Outcomes”. Since Lela Rekhviashvili, a postdoctoral researcher within CoMoDe, had been studying the public transport reform in Tbilisi, her expertise in the field shaped the conceptual framework of the symposium. Furthermore, a former employee of the Tbilisi city hall – Elene Khundzadze – who was a fellowship-holder at IfL – amply contributed with to the conceptual and organisational preparation of the event.
Continue reading “Knowledge Production in Public Transport: Georgian Symposium of the CoMoDe group”

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Microtransit – Alternative mobility offers in Germany, 2022

In the scope of the PUTSPACE project at IfL, Lukas Adolphi, Wladimir Sgibnev and Tonio Weicker published an open-access article on their research and cartographic visualizations on alternative mobility offers or so-called microtransit in Germany in the Journal of Transport Geography.

The paper discusses the role and possible impact of microtransits within mobility transitions through analyzing its hybrid nature in between car-usage and public transport in connection with its further potentials, limitations and corporate structures. The authors dive deep into the current status of microtransit distribution and trends. It is taken into consideration that any growth in this field of mobility happens rather slow and is subject to several limiting factors, so that project initiations rely heavily on experimental clauses by local governments and the existing forms of microtransit are rather diverse, small-scale and cater to very different groups of citizens. Going from there, the article aims to frame a future perspective of microtransit in Germany and sheds a light on this mobility phenomenon with all its struggles and promises through a unique methodology and via providing the first officially published, nationwide mapping in this form of all known microtransit offers.

Read the whole article here.

The interactive version of the mapping, initially published by Wladimir Sgibnev and Lukas Adolphi at Nationalatlas Aktuell can be found here.

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Buchpräsentation: Der Kampf um das Rioni-Tal im Spannungsfeld zwischen Politik und Zivilgesellschaft

Am 9. Dezember 2022 erschien Lela Rekhviashvilis neues Buch über ihre Forschung zur Protestbewegung von 2020 und 2021 im Kontext der Verteidigung des georgischen Rioni-Tals vor einem Staudamm-Projekt . Am 9. Dezember 2022 organisiert die Böll-Stiftung im Südkaukasus eine Buchvorstellung zur Publikation, welche auf Georgisch und Englisch gehalten wird und Online besucht werden kann. Es sprechen Lela Rekhviashvili (IfL) und Ia Eradze (Ilia State University). Mehr Informationen zur Veranstaltung und den Registrierungs-Link zur Online-Teilnahme finden Sie hier.
Continue reading “Buchpräsentation: Der Kampf um das Rioni-Tal im Spannungsfeld zwischen Politik und Zivilgesellschaft”

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Beyond fear and abandonment: public transport resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic

New in: A collaborative paper by Louise Sträuli, Tauri Tuvikene, Tonio Weicker, Wojciech Kębłowski, Wladimir Sgibnev, Peter Timko and Marcus Finbom, published in the scope of the Putspace project at IfL.

´The authors investigate how the Covid-19 pandemic affected both the accessibility of urban public transport and its structures themselves. It takes a closer look on the specific governmental regulations regarding urban mobility and points out the struggles of people who were especially affected by the Covid regulations on urban transport systems.

In an extensive mixed-method study, data on the behavior, emotions and struggles of public transport users and urban citizens from Berlin, Brussels, Stockholm and Tallinn has been collected. It is shown, how the regulations transformed general passenger behavior  in terms of usage, distances and frequency of travel and that certain narratives and passengers emotions as well as their socio-economic conditions have to be taken into account when trying to understand the realm of public transport in times of crisis.

Read the full open-access paper here!

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Mobility and Extractivism: Disrupting the Logistical Ecosystem of Capitalism

A new collaborative text by Tim Leibert, Lela Rekhviashvili and Wladimir Sgibnev explores the complex, structural and historic linkage between capitalist neo-extractivism and mobilities of globalization. It brings up the argument, that facets of mobility should always be taken into consideration when talking about extractivism and calls for a general shift in perspective on debates regarding sustainable development and mobility transitions. The authors argue that mobilities of a consumerist culture almost automatically exacerbate extractivism at the cost of the global south and exploited regions on multiple levels.

The text was originally published in german on the “Berliner Gazette” as a contribution to the ongoing series on the BG platform “After Extractivism”, which can be read here. The english version was published on Mediapart.

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Railway Conjunctures: Postcolonial and Postsocialist Trajectories of Urban Renewal

In their newest open access article Wladimir Sgibnev, together with our colleagues Laura Kemmer, Tonio Weicker and Maxwell Woods showcase how postsocialism and postcolonial studies can be brought into dialogue and learn from one another. Their contribution is based on the comparison of the historical case studies of tramway lines construction in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Kharkiv, Ukraine.

The article further investigates specific historical trajectories of mobility development in the postsocialist urban context and thereby draws converse lines to western hegemonial narratives of the modern city.

Read the full article here.