Pathways for sustainable mobility in unequal territories

Reflections from an action-research project

Abstract

In one of the parishes of the eastern area of Lisbon (Portugal), Marvila, which presents several indicators of spatial segregation and social and mobility inequalities, a lack of response in the area of bicycle mobility was observed by several local actors. Based on this observation, innovative and sustainable responses were sought to find solutions to this problem, in a collaborative and participatory approach in the local context. This article is part of an ongoing project, observing specifically: a participatory study on territory and local mobility; the creation of a shared bicycle network; and the development of a plastic recycling laboratory. The project is based on the promotion of education for safe active mobility, proposing the diagnosis of local resources, paths, mobility needs and strengthening of cycling mobility in a pandemic context, underpinning the design of new responses. It thus aims at in-depth reflection and action on mobility in the parish, with a view to territorial cohesion both locally and with the rest of the city. The processes and results of the project will be discussed from a theoretical and methodological framework of participatory action research, which fosters the establishment of collective forms of diagnosis and social responses, as well as supports the academy in the development of policies and practices of territorial education for sustainability. Associated with this debate, we seek, from the paradigm of mobilities, to present and relate the role of mobility infrastructures in the territory to (i)mobilities of the people who live there.