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Workshop and policy event: Sustainable mobility transitions: Learning from the East. Brussels 29-30 June 2026

We would like to invite you to Brussels on the 29th and 30th June 2026 for a workshop, followed by a policy event, on

 Sustainable mobility transitions: Learning from the East

The Leibniz-IfL event stems from two major projects in the area of mobilities research (Leibniz competition-funded CoMoDe & MSCA-funded MOBI-DIG). It aims to bring together a range of critical knowledge and expertise on mobility transformations in studies of policies in the EU, and formerly socialist countries beyond its borders.

The projects highlight the need to rethink sustainability in new terms that prioritise social responsibility of projects implemented by the EU and break with the superficial “sustainability fix”. The prevailing faith in solely technical innovation too often leads to unequal spread of funds and neglect of existing infrastructures. Responding to these tendencies it is particularly important to bring the sustainable mobility transitions closer to policy making in European countries and on the EU level.

During the two-day event we want to present and discuss the learnings from outside of the core EU regions, and pay special attention to existing solutions and strategies that can be adapted in the EU to make institutional, political and financial mechanisms truly working towards socially and environmentally just transformations of cities and regions. The focus of the workshop will be on how results from research projects have been and can be used to influence policy on the EU, national and local level.

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Upcoming lecture: “Who Moves the City? Actors, Conflicts, and Reforms in Urban Mobility in Central Asia”

Guest lecture by Mariya Petrova at Bauhaus Universität Weimar

27.01.2026
15:15; Coudraystr. 13A, HS2
Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus Universität Weimar

Rapid urbanisation and population growth, decades of neglected public transport and an increasing number of cars make urban mobility to a daily struggle for many citizens and pose major challenges for the cities in todays central Asia. Since the dissolution of the soviet Union the condition of urban mobility infrastructures in the region followed common patterns: from disinvestment, privatisation and informalisation in the 90-s, car-oriented development in 2000s to recent modernisation efforts, intensively supported by international developmental credits and fuelled by global imaginaries of urban modernity.

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Out now: Automated Public Transport in Germany

A new map dossier on Automated public transport in Germany by Wladimir Sgibnev, Karol Kurnicki and Stella Marie Köhler has been published on Nationalatlas Aktuell.

The use of automated buses in local public transport (ÖPNV) continues to gain momentum in Germany. Between 2016 and 2024, 85 projects were launched nationwide, as shown by interactive maps on Nationalatlas Aktuell. The article explores the associated data, spatial distribution patterns of projects, actor dynamics and funding structures in the new field. A supplementary glossary provides additional background information on the development of automated/autonomous driving in Germany.

Automatisierter ÖPNV in Deutschland

Cite:
Köhler, Stella Marie / Kurnicki, Karol / Wladimir Sgibnev (2025): Automatisierter ÖPNV in Deutschland. In: Nationalatlas aktuell 19 (10.2025) 5 [10.10.2025]. Leipzig: Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde (IfL).

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Publication alert

Almost a year after his personal meeting with the editor of Transfers, Egor’s article was published in the journal. Unfortunately, it is behind a paywall, but you can definitely reach out to the author and request a PDF. The paper focuses on the search for the source of epistemic superiority and engages with recent debates around the concept of technocracy. It draws on theoretical insights from Thorstein Veblen’s oeuvre and findings from anarchist thinkers. The reintroduction of a trolleybus service in Prague is offered as an empirical illustration. The paper’s central argument is that the procedures of knowledge production are the main source of epistemic superiority. This shifts the focus from an analytical value in itself to the executive mechanisms that enable a specific type of expertise.

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Back to the roots

Wladimir Sgibnev and Egor Muleev applied for the modest funding provided by the Volvo Research and Educational Foundation for a study of informal and shared mobilities in Central Asia and South-East Europe. And they won! They are now working to establish collaboration between different scholars in order to prepare the report by the end of the year.

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Workshop on financing sustainable transitions in Central Asia

Last Tuesday on the 8th of July, the CoMoDe group hosted a workshop organised by our dear fellow Bermet Borubaeva. We had a quite diverse number of participants with very various backgrounds in presence and online. In the beginning Bermet shared her year-long experience of resisting a debt-driven sustainable transition in Bishkek’s public transport system, which ultimately resulted in the city having no sustainable transport. We discussed various ways of organising protests, mapped all the relevant stakeholders, and brainstormed novel ways of presenting the issue. The event went very well, and Bermet cooked us a fabulous plov for dinner afterwards.

Read more about the developments in Bishkek and local activist structures on: https://bishkeksmog.info/2025/06/05/ifl/

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Book Launch of “Appreciation of Marshrutkas” at CASNiG Conference 2025

During the 6th annual CASNiG Conference (Central Asian Studies Network) in Bishkek, organised by the American University in Central Asia and the French Institute for Central Asian Studies, Wladimir Sgibnev and Egor Muleev presented a new, upcoming book with the name “Appreciation of Marshrutkas”. It is a collection of articles originally published in English as part of the Marshrutka project, which have now been translated into Russian. The book contains five papers by Cholpon Turdalieva, Lela Rekhviashvili, Wladimir Sgibnev and Tonio Weicker. Egor Muleev translated and edited the papers, and wrote an introduction. The day before the launch at the conference, the Bishkek-based publishing house “Books for Development” held a similar event in their bookstore. So there were two launches, and both went really well. 

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Seminar: Mapping Mobility Transition in Central Asia: Sustainability, Power and International Financial Institutions (Bishkek trolleybus case study)

Tuesday 8 July, 16:00, room 407.
Schongauerstraße 9, Leipzig
Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL), Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde

Visiting Fellows Programme –  2025
The CoMoDe project, ‘Contentious Mobilities: Rethinking Mobility Transitions through a Decolonial Lens (CoMoDe)”

The IfL Visiting Fellowship Programme, ‘Mobility Transition in Central Asia: Sustainability, Power and International Financial Institutions (IFIs)’, will focus on the case of Bishkek’s wasted trolleybus system, which was once the most sustainable form of transport in the city. In recent years, public concern has grown over rising levels of air pollution in Bishkek. According to IQAir, an air quality information platform, Bishkek often ranks among the world’s most polluted cities. In an attempt to address this issue, Bishkek City Hall, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), intends to purchase 120 electric buses to replace the trolleybuses that were financed by a loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

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Open Call for the „Transformation in Motion“ summer school

The Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) invites researchers, students, media and art professionals to take part in a one-week train journey through transformation regions in East Germany and Poland. Applications are open until 15 June 2025.

The summer school entitled ‘Transformation in Motion’ starts on 22 August 2025 in Berlin. The route leads via Węgliniec, Görlitz, Torgau, Naumburg (Saale), Erfurt and the Thuringian Forest and ends in Halle (Saale) on 29 August 2025. The journey along past and present borders is intended to offer participants a deeper insight into the social, economic and ecological changes that are summarised under the term transformation. The focus will be on phenomena such as structural change, transport and climate issues, cultural initiatives and specific aspects of urban and regional development.

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Meet Mariya Petrova and Dr. Wladimir Sgibnev at “Book-A-Scientist” 2025!

At “Book a Scientist” on 3 June 2025, anyone who is curious and thirsty for knowledge will have the opportunity to talk to an expert from the Leibniz Association for 25 minutes and ask everything they have always wanted to know about their favourite topic.

You can now book your discussion with a Leibniz scientist. To do so, click on one or more dates of your choice on the event website and fill in the corresponding booking form. The individual, 25-minute one-to-one meetings will take place online on 3 June 2025 between 10 and 11 am and 4 and 5 pm. The offer is free of charge.

All topics and dates can be found here:
https://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/ueber-uns/neues/veranstaltungen/book-a-scientist

Mariya Petrova
Transport reforms in Uzbekistan: a view from the inside

After years of cuts and stagnation, Uzbekistan has recently started investing in the modernisation of public transport and mobility infrastructure in general. However, the process is characterised by complex social and political conflicts and hurdles: Shortage of skilled labour, authoritarian political culture, the (vested) interests of decision-makers. What are the perspectives of the people working at the various levels of the system

Mariya Petrova is a researcher in the Mobilities & Migration research group focussing on infrastructures in the (post-)Soviet space.

Dr. Wladimir Sgibnev
Mobility in rural areas: perspectives and strategies for coping with everyday life

Everyday mobility in peripheral areas requires solutions that go beyond “urban” concepts. The widespread unease of being dependent on one’s own car is an important signal for discussions on the mobility turnaround. What seems realistic is a mix of local supply, coordinated or on-demand public transport services and – in the medium term – probably also the car.

Dr Wladimir Sgibnev coordinates the IfL research group ‘Mobilities and Migration’ and deals with issues of mobility in peripheral areas, among other things.