Waldemar Kuligowski | Modernization through the Motorway: Neoliberal Transformation of Infrastructure in Poland
In my presentation, I would like to focus on the great transformation that began—first in Poland, and later in other socialist countries of Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe—in June 1989. This transformation led to political, economic, social, and infrastructural changes.
Today, we know that new entrepreneurship was accompanied by new poverty, that great opportunities went hand in hand with great trauma. There was no single, universal, and unidirectional transformation, but rather a constellation of local changes. Through ethnographic research on the effects of building the A2 highway from Warsaw to the German border, I came to understand various dimensions of infrastructural transformation. On the one hand, it was a massive investment, with record financial resources, a narrative about the “end” of Poland’s modernization, preparations for hosting a major sporting event, the fulfillment of the American Dream of freedom of movement, and the naming of the new road as the “Highway of Freedom.” On the other hand, it was the trauma of big change, a sense of alienation and exclusion, and a deep crisis of local economies.
Revisiting the research results invites reflections that go beyond the petrified discourse of transformation. “Self-colonization” and the “doxa of dependency” on the West are already recognized themes. What can “modernization through the highway” teach us today? How can we view the practice of mobile and transnational “karaoke” differently? Should we not recognize here a fundamental ideological conflict between the need for freedom and the need for security.
Waldemar Kuligowski is a professor at the Department of Anthropology and Ethnology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.
His research interests focus on the theory of culture, reflexive ethnography, anthropology of motorway, festivals and festivalization. He was conducting ethnohraphic fieldworks in Poland, Germany, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Spain, Serbia, Canada, and Albania.
Recently he published Modernizing Localities in Poland: A Never-ending Transformation (Lanham – London – New York 2024) and (with Marcin Poprawski) Festivals and Values. Music, Community Engagement and Organisational Symbolism (Cham 2023). A selection of his critical essays in Serbian under the title “Polish Christ and Serbian Trumpets” is being prepared. As a “public intellectual”, he publishes his essays and articles in leading Polish newspapers and magazines. Recently he has been involved in organizing scientific conferences in a jazz club and at a punk rock music festival.
He is a visiting professor at the University of Gdańsk (PL) and Masaryk University in Brno (CZ).
Time: Monday, the 23rd of September, 05:00-06:30 PM
Place: Lancaster University Leipzig, Room 716
Chaired by Louise Sträuli (Tallinn University)
Frauke Behrendt | Electric Mobility Transitions: A Global South and Social Justice Perspective
What ‘counts’ as electric mobility and is regarded central to low-carbon transitions? Largely electric cars – out of reach for most people on this planet and also unable to lower emissions sufficiently or solve most urban issues, while implicated in mining injustices. Their dominance in statistics, debates, visions and policies perpetuates automobilities while rendering alternatives invisible. Putting the electrification and digitalisation around two- and three-wheelers in Asia and Africa centre stage, my talk offers a fresh perspective on where and how the most significant shift to electric mobility happens. And what the implications are for understandings of ‘transitions’.
Specifically, this talk highlights the recent electrification of motorcycles in Kenya and rickshaws in Bangladesh. Two- and three wheelers are largely absent from mobility and transport scholarship, other than cycling and shared e-scooters. Motorized two- and three wheelers in particular tend to be blind spots in debates on electric mobility or transitions towards low carbon cities. Drawing on the Mobility Data Justice approach (Behrendt & Sheller), the talk foregrounds how the shift to electric mobility in Kenya and Bangladesh intertwines digital and physical mobilities, and what the social justice implications are. The digital side includes ride hailing apps, GPS-tracked batteries, and phone-based microcredits for vehicle purchase and is intertwined with physical mobilities around the service of transporting people and goods. Social justice implications include distributive (e.g. gender-based exclusions from riding), procedural (e.g. who decides which vehicles are included in e-mobility policies) and epistemic (what counts as sustainable/electric mobility) elements. The Mobility Data Justice approach also offers a multi-scalar perspective that considers global flows of resources for batteries, parts for vehicles assembly, platform data, or vehicle statistics – and how they relate to local mobilities in cities and streets. My talk aims to understand these current developments in the context of (post)colonial histories, traditionally high rates of paratransit (incl. 2/3 wheelers) and walking, alongside strong maintenance cultures. My talk also demonstrates how millions of electric vehicles are invisible in international statistics on electric mobility – and how that matters for debates on ‘transitions to electric mobility’.
This talk thus posits an alternative understanding of what ‘counts’ as electric mobility, and of where and how significant transformations towards low-carbon future are happening. An understanding that hopes to support a move beyond (electric) automobility thinking, visioning, financing and policy making – towards Global South-inspired low-carbon mobilities.
Frauke Behrendt is Associate Professor in Transitions to Sustainable Mobility at the Technology, Innovation and Society Group at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
Her interdisciplinary research is located at the intersection of three key themes: Mobility, Sustainability and Digitalization. It engages at the local, national and international scale, investigates a range of modes, explores the past, present and future – and considers the user experience, the design perspective, and the policy landscape – of how we can move towards radically more sustainable mobilities.
Prof. Behrendt’s current research on social justice includes work with Mimi Sheller on Mobility Data Justice, and exploring the implications of AI for the governance of mobility. Current work on micro-mobility comprises Dutch, UK, South Korean, and Chinese case studies, alongside research on the electric mobility transitions in the Global South, specifically around motorbikes and rickshaws. Frauke Behrendt is also involved in ELEVATE project for which she led the funding application. This project explores micromobility in the UK, in collaboration with Leeds, Oxford, and Brighton University. Her previous research focussed on smart cycling, AI and digital/data society, the musical use of mobile phones, as well as sonic interaction design.
Frauke Behrendt enjoys thinking up and leading funded projects and working on interdisciplinary research teams. Previously, she worked at the Universities of Brighton, and Sussex (UK) and the Rhode Island School of Design (US).
Time: Tuesday, the 24th of September, 04:30-05:00 PM
Place: Lancaster University Leipzig, Room 716
Chaired by Karol Kurnicki (Leibniz Institute of Regional Geography)