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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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VISITING FELLOWS PROGRAMME


We invite applications for our Visiting Fellows Programme (f/m/d) in the framework of the research project “Contentious Mobilities: Rethinking Mobility Transitions through a Decolonial Lens (CoMoDe)”

Academic and non-academic applicants are welcome to apply for stays ranging from one to six months at the Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) in Leipzig. The fellowship scheme is administered by the IfL and financed by the Leibniz Association in the framework of its Junior Research Group programme.

Continue reading “VISITING FELLOWS PROGRAMME”
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Freshly published: The Road to Socialism

A core member of the CoMoDe team Lyubomir Pozharliev recently published his new book “The Road to Socialism. Transport Infrastructure in Socialist Bulgaria and Yugoslavia (1945–1989)” via V&R unipress. It is accessible as an open source publication supported by the Leibniz foundation.

The book is the first comprehensive empirical study of transport infrastructure in two socialist countries in the years 1945–1989. In the case study of Yugoslavia, the construction of roads was interrelated with building socialist and trans-ethnic identities, uniting all federal republics. In practice, the “Brotherhood and Unity Highway” was an artery linking the capitals of the most industrialized republics, neglecting Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and parts of Macedonia. In socialist Bulgaria existed a clear ideological link between transport and nation building. Bulgarian roads’ disintegrative function was best seen in the example of the “Highway Ring” which, constructed as an inner circle, isolated the border regions and areas inhabited by Bulgarian Muslims and Turks.

Dr Lyubomir Pozharliev is a research associate at the Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography) in Leipzig. He is working within the Leibniz Junior Research group “Contentious Mobilities: rethinking mobility transitions through a decolonial lens” with a focus on mobility modes in Central Asia and other post-socialist countries. Between 2018 and 2020 he was a postdoctoral researcher within SPP “1981 Transottomanica”. He received his doctorate in history and cultural studies (2018) from Justus-Liebig University, Giessen at the Department of Eastern European History.

The full Open Access PDF can be found here.

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Neuer Kartenbeitrag in der online-Zeitschrift Nationalatlas: Endstation Grenze? Die aktuelle Situation des grenzübergreifenden ÖPNV

Lukas Adolphi, Wladimir Sgibnev und Tonio Weicker widmen sich dem grenzüberschreitenden ÖPNV:

Innerhalb Deutschlands gehört die Sicherstellung einer ausreichenden Bedienung der Bevölkerung mit Verkehrsleistungen im ÖPNV zur rechtlich verankerten Daseinsvorsorge. Doch wie sieht die konkrete Situation in den Grenzregionen aus? Bestehen genügend grenzübergreifende ÖPNV-Angebote zwischen der Bundesrepublik und Ihren Nachbarn? Mittels umfangreicher Recherchen konnten deutschlandweit 179 grenzüberschreitende Verbindungen per Regionalzug, S-Bahn, Straßenbahn, Fähre, Bus, Ruftaxi oder Taxibus ausfindig gemacht werden. Es gibt jedoch erhebliche regionale Disparitäten, wie die aktuelle interaktive Übersichtskarte verdeutlicht: Mit Hilfe des Tooltips kann jede Verbindung mit Verkehrsmittel, Taktung, Bedientagen und Sitzplätzen angezeigt werden.

Viel Vergnügen beim Schmökern.

Dipl.-Geogr. Volker Bode
Forschungsbereich Geovisualisierung
Redaktion Nationalatlas aktuell

 

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Facebook group “Marshrutka Appreciation Society”

In our public facebook group “Marshrutka Appreciation Society” we not only talk about marshrutkas, but about everything around mobility and (public) transport in the post-Soviet space. This reaches from funny stories which happened in the world of public transport to scientific articles and job offers. Furthermore it provides the opportunity to get connected to other interested people from this field. We are happy to welcome new members!

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PUTSPACE – Public Transport as Public Space in European Cities: Narrating, Experiencing, Contesting

Today we have another tip: the PUTSPACE Project. PUTSPACE – Public Transport as Public Space in European Cities: Narrating, Experiencing, Contesting – aims to humanise transport research by studying diverse narratives, experiences and contestations of public transport, as they have been unfolding in cities across Europe since the late nineteenth century. The project places public transport at the frontline of contesting what is, can be, or should be public in the city. For more information we recommend their website.

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The Marshrutka Project

Check out The Marshrutka Project! This research project, led by CoMoDe researchers Wladimir Sgibnev and Lela Rekhviashvili, dealt with the role of the marshrutka (minibuses) mobility phenomenon in the production of post-Soviet urban spaces, in and beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus. It provided an empirically founded contribution to the larger discussion on post-Soviet transformation, highlighting the bottom-up and everyday emergence of new orders in the fields of economy, morale, urban development and migration.