Afterword: ‘designing' mobilities

Products and practices of design are often portrayed as creative, imaginative, functional and inherently ‘productive’. We may think of a visually pleasing vehicle design, an intuitive and responsive ‘app’, or a beautiful bridge. As we outlined in our introduction, the past century has seen a vast array of design professionals become involved in the conception, formulation, construction and refinement of technologies, vehicles and spaces of transport and mobility. This includes engineers involved in the design, manufacture and maintenance of highly specialised technologies of transport and mobility – from railways, roads and air traffic control systems, to cars, ships and military drones – as well as design professionals who work across different modes and sectors, including civil engineers, planners, architects and landscape designers. It also includes government officials (civil servants) and politicians who conceive a range of more-or-less grand (or more-or-less mundane) schemes, from networks of motorways, hub airports and high-speed internet networks, to schemes for accessible and affordable public transport. In reflecting upon the contents of this collection, we were struck by several patterns. First, many of the examples of ‘design’ which we discuss are in either ‘high income’ countries (Chile, Denmark, Japan, Sweden and the UK) or fast developing ‘upper middle income’ countries (e.g. China), and often the capital cities or large urban areas in these countries. While these case studies reflect the research foci of our contributors, this does also shape the kinds of design strategies, solutions and practices that are discussed in the volume. It also raises the question of what ‘design’ may look and feel like in majority-world contexts, as well as for minority indigenous communities in countries like Australia, Canada and New Zealand. What happens when particular ‘designs’ (of transport and mobility systems) are imposed on particular communities through colonial rule or central government decision-making, or ‘imported’ into developing countries by multinational corporations? How are technologies of mobility refashioned or redesigned to work in new contexts, and how are they consumed by ‘users’ in unforeseen as well as expected ways? Second, the examples of mobility technologies discussed in the book could all be more narrowly labelled as transport technologies. While this is not a problem, it is important to recognise that not all practices of mobility and mobility design will easily sit under the umbrella of ‘transport’. This is something we will return to with alternative examples later. Third, in turning to practices of mobility design which are not easily categorised as transport designs, it becomes necessary to recognise the many ‘design practices’ which are developed and applied with the express intention of limiting or constraining mobilities, in frustrating or preventing transportation, and in enacting stasis or fixity. We will highlight some examples in this area as well.