Digitalisation and the future of mobility: a study of Mobility as a Service [MaaS] platforms

The project aims to understand the society shaping capacities of digital technologies for mobility, investigate their effects on processes of spatial transformation and recognise social and political values that play a role in changing transportation infrastructures and urban travel through investigating Mobility as a Service [MaaS] platforms.

Studying mobility platforms responds to challenges of digitalisation, sustainable transformation, urban modernisation and social equality.

The research addresses the gaps in the studies on digital platforms, infrastructures and mobilities and responds to rapid socio-technological changes.

It contributes to studies at theintersection of digitalisation and mobility justice.The research elucidates how platforms are set to operate (Objective1. Infrastructuring), how they interact with existing transportation systems (O2. Interaction), how they reinterpret the role of the user/citizen in the system (O3.

User/Citizen) and how they shape future urban mobility (O4. Mobility Futures).

Two MaaS systems operating in Berlin and Warsaw will be studied through the mixed methodology including sociological, visual, digital and mobile methods and techniques such as visualisation and mapping, interviews, mobility diaries, field visits, application analysis and workshops.The results of the project will be published in the form of academic articles and disseminated through workshops, lectures and teaching, creation of media content with the purpose of impacting mobility transformations for sustainability and increasing role of citizens in digitalisation of mobility.Leibniz-IfL supports the project through its international and interdisciplinary expertise, institutional networks and excellent research infrastructure.

The researcher will achieve academic goals in the areas of research development, leadership and international profile, and acquire skills and knowledge necessary to take on permanent and leading senior roles in European academia.