Time, Innovation and Mobilities

In social theory and sociology, time and travel in technological cultures is one of the new and challenging research topics in the 'mobilities turn'. Yet surprisingly, contemporary practices of mobility have till now, seen only limited theorization within these disciplines. By analyzing historic and contextualized transit practices, this revealing book argues that travel cannot now simply be reduced to getting from A to B; it is an integrated part of everyday life.

In this area, researching how problems can be identified as dilemmas and reformulated as design problems helps create a new vocabulary; one which will not only change the agenda in the debate on mobility problems in the public domain, but will also suggest new ways of theorizing mobility innovations. In this fascinating book, author Peters:

• develops a conceptual framework to study contemporary transit practices and evaluate innovation strategies
• gives new insights regarding historic and contemporary design strategies and regarding innovations related to travel in technological cultures
• gives special attention to electronic timespaces and ICT based mobility innovations
• investigates cases of travel in technological cultures, car travel, air travel, and cycling in Dutch towns.

An original and provocative contribution to the emerging field of mobilities, this book will become an essential resource for advanced undergraduate, post-graduate, researchers and practitioners in the fields of sociology, geography, spatial planning, policy and transportation studies.

Dr. Peter Frank Peters (1960) is assistant professor at the Faculty of Arts & Culture of the University of Maastricht. He has published on time, mobility and travel in technological cultures. His research is concerned with the debates on public problems related to mobility and the assessment of innovations that are suggested to solve these problems.