Mobility and transport are closely intertwined since we want and need to move in order to fulfill our needs: be it to go shopping or to the pub, to college or to sporting activities. Sometimes we just drive around without any specific destination. Thus, being mobile is part of our current lifestyle. But road traffic that is mainly associated with being mobile also has its downsides, which are particularly evident in cities. Examples are environmental pollution caused by CO2 or particulate matter or the allocation of space in public areas. How do these negative impacts influence the quality of city life and how do they affect social coexistence?
These are questions concerning the “city of the future” that people in the Rhine-Main region are asking just as much as the residents of the Lyon region. Therefore, Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft and Goethe-Institut Lyon have conceived a youth encounter on the topic of sustainable cities for 2021 on occasion of the 60th anniversary of the city partnership. On March 19 and 20, 2021, young adults can first expect a digital kick-off with practice-oriented lectures and interactive small groups with Prof. Dr. Michel Lussault from the École Urbaine de Lyon and ISOE mobility researcher Dr. Jutta Deffner. The two-day exchange in June will also include excursions to meet with experts in sustainable urban planning and actors in urban initiatives.
Helping to shape the sustainable city of the future
For the youth encounter ISOE offers excursions to learning sites related to urban mobility culture in Frankfurt (for example, the main train station) as well as with scientific lectures on June 21. The formats are designed to be interactive and the questions that the participants will address are: What do young adults think the city and mobility of the future will look like? What changes do they consider to be socially, economically and ecologically necessary? “Together, we want to develop a new view on the city and life in the city,” says Jutta Deffner. On the one hand, that means understanding how a city deals with traffic and we want to find out: “Does a city just manage traffic or does it design new, sustainable concepts? Who participates in such decisions and processes and in what way?”
On the other hand, it is about young people becoming clear about their own traffic behavior and mobility practices as well as their wishes and demands for mobility. “The topic of mobility moves young people a lot, both individually and with a general view to the future,” says Deffner. “We want to enable them to better understand connections between urban development and traffic, and, based on their own everyday experiences, to find out how they, as young citizens’, can actively help shape sustainable mobility in the city of the future.” The educational formats developed for this purpose are offered by ISOE in cooperation with “Umweltlernen in Frankfurt e.V.”
Find out more about the dates of the youth exchange Frankfurt – Lyon under www.jugendbegegnung-frankfurt-lyon-2021
Scientific contact person:
Dr. Jutta Deffner
Phone +49 69 707 6919-38
deffner(at)isoe.de
www.isoe.de
Press contact:
Melanie Neugart
Phone +49 69 707 6919-51
neugart(at)isoe.de
www.isoe.de