Mobility democracy?! Analyzing the imaginary of inclusive transitions in urban mobility planning

Policy debates on how to design just and inclusive transition processes from fossil fuels to more sustainable means of natural resource use have reached the urban planning sector. Voices calling for energy democracy have entered scholarly and public debates addressing the need for an eco-friendly and inclusive transition. In this paper we apply the energy democracy perspective to the field of sustainable mobility transition. We ask how energy democracy speaks to the governance of urban mobility planning in general and understandings of democratic participation in particular. Heuristically we draw on the concept of imaginary from Science and Technology Studies (STS) to analyze what future expectations set the frame for sustainable mobility transitions. With the help of MAXQDA we are performing a content analysis and empirically illustrate “mobility democracy” in sustainable urban mobility planning documents. Our results show that prices as barriers, the discussion on needs as well as infrastructures & space are meaningful for the understanding of accessibility in the texts. We find a development from caring for somebody to the enabling of somebody and the topic of acceptance in the context of participation. To answer our research question, we furthermore state that energy democracy speaks to sustainable mobility transformations in that it emphasizes the importance of self-determination as a complement to co-determination, and thus can provide an important impetus to the approach and project of energy democracy.