"Models of Mobility:
Systemic Differences, Path Dependencies, Economic, Social, and Environmental Impact (1900 to Tomorrow)" will convene at York University, Toronto, on March 23-24, 2012. The workshop is organized jointly by the German Historical Institute (GHI), Washington, D.C., the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies (CCGES), and the Schulich School of Business, York University. Conveners are Matthias Kipping (Schulich), Christina Kraenzle (CCGES), and Christina Lubinski (GHI). The organizers explain in their call for papers:
There are continuing debates about the best ways to transport people and goods both over short and long distances in a world marked by population growth, increased urbanization, and—after a brief crisis-induced hiatus—growing trade flows. These concern both the developed economies, which struggle to modernize and integrate their aging infrastructures and reduce the environmental, social, and economic cost of mobility, and the emerging economies that often have to build new transportation systems from scratch trying to accommodate rapid growth and changing user preferences. . . . this workshop tries to put these debates into a broader historical and comparative context by looking at the way different models of mobility emerged and developed in Europe and North America since 1900. . . . The workshop intends to look in particular at how various actors, namely industry, users, and policy-makers, shaped systems that differed along a number of dimensions, including, for example, public vs. private ownership and operation and individual vs. communal forms of transportation. It also wants to examine the extent to which these initial models might have created path dependencies in terms of technology, physical infrastructure, and cultural preferences that limited subsequent choices and, last but not least, to assess the economic, social and environmental impact these different models of mobility had then and continue to have now.
Please see the
full call for papers on the GHI site. Those interested in presenting a paper at this workshop should send a 1,000-word abstract and a one-page CV via email to Bärbel Thomas <
b.thomas@ghi-dc.org> by
September 30, 2011.
