What can the transition to sustainable mobility learn from the corona crisis? A comparative analysis of policy instruments, communication, and societal threat

One of the striking changes during the corona crisis is significant alterations in citizens’ mobility.

Authorities have used a range of instruments: hard legislation and prohibitions, as well as soft communication which appeal to citizen’s sense of social responsibility.

The main objective of this research project is to investigate what stakeholders engaged in the transition to sustainable mobility, a critical sector in order to combat climate change, can learn from how the corona crisis have been dealt with by the state government and its authorities.

More precisely, the aim is to carry out a critical comparison of policy instruments applied aiming to change or resulting in change in passenger mobility, the communication associated with these measures, and how each threat is conceptualized as a policy issue.

Three bodies of literature will enrich the project: literature on learning from crises and shocks, literature on policy instruments, and literature on discursive approaches and governmentality.

The methodology is qualitative and imply comparative analyses of Swedish political and administrative authorities’ handling of the covid-19 threat and the threat of climate changes respectively as well as the underlying conceptualizations of these two threats.

On this background it will be discussed what Swedish political and administrative authorities can learn from the covid-19 crisis in their efforts to establish a transition to reach climate goals within the transport sector.