Thesis title:
Digitalisation and sustainability transitions in urban passenger mobility
About the project:
Digitalisation and climate change has an impact on everybody. Digitalisation is changing the opportunity space for innovation. Climate change necessitates a sustainability transition. People move.
Digitalisation is a key element in the fifth technological revolution. It can be seen as a general purpose technology that facilitates growth in the sectors where it is applied. Innovations in mobility often include digital technologies as a central element.
As a major source of GHG-emissions, mobility is one of the sectors that sustainability transition research is focusing on. A sustainability transition in mobility happens in parallel with the process of digitalisation. However, surprisingly little is known on the cause-and-effect relation between these processes. This thesis therefore investigate how digitalisation and transport innovations can contribute to more efficient and sustainable passenger transport in urban agglomerations?
I address this question by analysing urban mobility innovations facilitated by digitalisation using the multi-level perspective (MLP). Where transitions are understood through the interplay between actors and institutions at three different levels. The landscape, which represents external factors and trends. The socio-technical regime, which represents the actors, cultures and institutions surrounding a particular technology and the niche, which represents protected spaces where new technologies can develop. Using this framework, I understand digitalisation as a landscape level trend that has an impact across sectors and the mobility as a system comprising of a series of partially interacting socio-technical regimes.
I chose to focus on urban mobility for four main reasons. 1) It is where most people live. 2) It is often the first location where new technologies are introduced. 3) It is where the widest variety of mobility options are available. 4) it is where the negative impacts of private car-based mobility are the strongest.
The main contribution of the thesis is increased understanding of the interplay between two major forces affecting urban mobility. The thesis combines insights from different components of the mobility system, illustrating how digitalisation can take different forms in different physical and regulatory context. It shows that although digitalisation increases the opportunity-space for innovation within mobility, there is no causal relation between digitalisation and a sustainability transition in mobility.
Supervisor
Olav Wicken (UiO)
Ove Langeland (TØI)
Commentator
Martin Kenney (UCDavis)
About Jørgen Aarhaug
Jørgen Aarhaug is a PhD Research Fellow at the TIK Centre. This seminar marks the final evaluation prior to submission of his dissertation.
Jørgen Aarhaug's manuscript is available upon request. Please send the request to Aarhaug at: jorgen.aarhaug@tik.uio.no
The seminar will be hybrid. If you would like to participate via Zoom, please contact Inger-Johanne Ullern: i.j.ullern@tik.uio.no
Welcome!