Looking beyond motorways plans, this essay focuses on the role of the Italian "road" lobby in the 1920s in shaping the national transport policy. Contractors like Puricelli were the driving forces of surface transport modernization, with visionary plans but also facing a lack of sympathy by the automobile industry. Those programs were nevertheless carried out with the strong support of the Touring Club and provincial councils. In this context, it seems that the fascist dictatorship, with its hesitance, slowed—rather than hastened—road modernization. Only in 1928, feeding off the ideas of Puricelli and others, did the Mussolini government develop a proper road renewal program. Finally, framing the Italian experience in the European contexts, it emerges that despite the extreme success of American car culture, England is depicted as a more suitable model.
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European Models, Domestic Hesitance
The Renewal of the Italian Road Network in the 1920s
Massimo Moraglio
La integración en América Latina
Entre el pasado y el futuro
Hugo Fazio Vengoa
*Full article is in Spanish
English abstract: The article begins by analyzing the structural and contextual factors as well as the problematic asymmetries that have paralyzed integration efforts in Latin America at the beginning of this new century. Subsequently, the author proposes a model of social, ethical, and culturally inclusive integration in a cosmopolitan spirit.
Spanish abstract: El artículo analiza en un primer momento los factores estructurales coyunturales y las problemáticas asimetrías que han conducido a la parálisis de los esfuerzos integradores en América Latina en los inicios del nuevo siglo. En un segundo momento se propone un esquema de integración social, ética y culturalmente incluyente dentro de un espíritu cosmopolita.
French abstract: Cet article commence par analyser les facteurs structurels et contextuels ainsi que les asymétries problématiques qui ont paralysé les efforts d'intégration en Amérique Latine au début de ce nouveau siècle. Ensuite, l'auteur propose un modèle d'intégration sociale, éthique et culturellement inclusif, basé sur une logique cosmopolite.
Matt Thomas
Fast & Furious 6, United States, 2013, Universal Pictures, directed by Justin Lin, written by Chris Morgan, starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriquez, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot, Luke Evans, Gina Carano, and John Ortiz.
Inclusive innovation and sustainable development in affordable habitat
From the linear intervention model to Social Technological Systems
Facundo Picabea
English abstract: In the last thirty years, Latin America has seen a significant growth in a set of approaches, schools of thought and social movements, which posit that is impossible to effect a transformation in the region without processes focused on inclusion and democracy. Recent analyses on some of these trends reveal the existence of linear and deterministic assumptions in the various models used to address the issue. From the analytical dimension to the regulatory, this work puts forward an inclusive and participatory development model. Unlike technological systems based on income maximization, private appropriation and benefit restriction, Social Technological Systems represent a systemic strategic vision: new development paths, new ways of thinking about problems and socio-technical solutions, and new ways of exercising democracy.
Spanish abstract: En los últimos treinta años, América Latina ha visto crecer significativamente un conjunto de enfoques, corrientes y movimientos sociales que sostienen la imposibilidad de transformar la región si no es a través de procesos que valoricen la inclusión y la democracia. Recientes análisis sobre algunas de estas corrientes ponen en evidencia la continuidad de supuestos lineales y deterministas. De la dimensión analítica a la regulatoria, este trabajo propone un modelo de desarrollo inclusivo y participativo. Frente a los sistemas tecnológicos basados en la maximización de la renta, la apropiación privada y la restricción de los beneficios, los Sistemas Tecnológicos Sociales responden a una visión estratégica sistémica: nuevos senderos de desarrollo, nuevas formas de concebir problemas y soluciones socio-técnicas, nuevas formas de ejercer la democracia.
French abstract: Durant les trente dernières années, l’Amérique latine a connu la croissance significative d’un ensemble d’approches, d’écoles de pensée et de mouvements sociaux qui revendiquent l’impossibilité d’une transformation dans la région sans processus inclusifs et démocratiques. Des analyses récentes de certaines de ces tendances révèlent l’existence de suppositions linéaires et déterministes dans les modèles utilisés. Partant d’une dimension analytique vers une perspective règlementaire, ce travail revendique un modèle de développement inclusif et participatif. A la différence des systèmes technologiques fondés sur la maximisation des revenus, l’appropriation privée et la restriction des bénéfices, les Systèmes Sociaux Technologiques représentent une vision systémique stratégique : des voies et des manières nouvelles pour penser les problèmes et les solutions sociotechniques et des formes novatrices d’exercice démocratique.
“That’s Where I First Saw the Water”
Mobilizing Children’s Voices in UK Flood Risk Management
Alison Lloyd Williams, Amanda Bingley, Marion Walker, Maggie Mort, and Virginia Howells
act in relation to flooding, and this involved walking, “phototalk,” 3-D model making, and theater. Research into the mobile experience of a disaster invites the use of methods that are also “on the move,” 13 and, as such, our research builds on the
Craig Horner
Automobility in the United Kingdom in the period before the First World War moved from irrelevance and ridicule to a normalized leisure activity. With particular reference to the magazines Punch and Motor, this article argues that this process was hastened by middle- and lower-middle-class consumers' receptivity to the automobile and motorcycle, particularly in the period after 1905 when a tolerable mechanical reliability had been achieved. By buying second-hand, and taking short trips and camping weekends, the self-driving, car-owning “modest motorist“ undermined the formal, club-based network of elite motorists and created their own distinct cultural model.
Daniel Newman, Peter Wells, Paul Nieuwenhuis, Ceri Donovan, and Huw Davies
This article considers electric cars as socio-technical experiments in meeting mobility requirements. There have been numerous trials and government incentives to promote such vehicles, but with a notable lack of success. The article thus seeks to address an urgent need to understand such “transition failure,” which may ultimately impact upon how progress is measured in sociotechnical transitions. Presenting results from a recent research project, it is suggested that shared usage models hold greater potential for achieving sustainable personal mobility. It is concluded, however, that multiple niche experiments present a highly complex situation in which cumulative learning is problematic.
Gijs Mom, Georgine Clarsen, and Cotten Seiler
Last year President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela announced the appearance of what a Dutch national newspaper called an “anticapitalist car.” The two models, named by Chávez himself as the “Orinoco” and the “Arauca,” after rivers that run through Venezuela, are locally assembled under a preferential license agreement with the Chinese automaker Chery. The cars are sold for half the price of other makes and are marketed to the expanding Venezuelan middle class. They are intended as “new attainments of the revolution” that are meant to raise the “standard of life of the people.” This new venture was in a tradition that Chávez’s opponents claim started in 2006, when he came close to making a similar deal with Iranian president Ahmadinejad.
Learning from a Contested Project in the Netherlands
The Clash over the Amelisweerd Forest, 1957–1982
Odette van de Riet and Bert Toussaint
The Amelisweerd case, a highly debated highway network expansion project from the late 1970s, has been widely portrayed as a symbolic mismatch between government and entrenched stakeholder opposition. The aim of this article is to learn from the case by unraveling the policy process using a multiactor policy analysis model. The result is that the policy process scores poorly on all the three applied criteria, and this has had a discernible negative effect on the level of stakeholder support for the policy proposals. Since then, major changes have taken place in the planning processes of infrastructural projects in the Netherlands. However, the potential for learning from Amelisweerd is much wider, as since the 1960s public projects are increasingly subject to public scrutiny and comment. Careful analysis from iconic cases like Amelisweerd can help current infrastructural policymakers and planning project managers as they develop fresh policies and projects.
The Appropriation of Bicycles in West Africa
Pragmatic Approaches to Sustainability
Hans Peter Hahn
Bicycles have a wide range of functions and roles in West Africa. They have vital functions for everyday necessities, but they also constitute prestige objects. The appreciation of bicycles in Africa started very early, almost simultaneously with their diffusion as consumer goods in Europe. However, the adoption of bicycles followed a specific pathway, which is explained in this article within the conceptual framework of appropriation. Cultural appropriation highlights the significant modifications of bicycles in Africa and the abandonment of some functions like braking. In spite of the technical simplifications, modified bicycles are perceived as having higher value, by virtue of their fitness for the tough roads and their increased reliability. Appropriation results in a specific “Africanized“ bicycle, which makes possible a prolonged usage. This essay argues that the “Africanized“ bicycle constitutes a model of sustainability in matters of transport, one which is not sufficiently recognized in current debates about sustainable innovations.