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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space supports CoFoKids Junior Research Group at Goethe University Frankfurt
“From the ‘Backseat Generation’ to Pioneers of the Mobility Transition?” – Under this thought-provoking title, a new junior research group at Goethe University is exploring how children and adolescents are mobile in public spaces, what perspectives they bring to shaping urban street design, and how they can be involved in transportation transformation processes. The young people themselves will play a central role in the research.
FRANKFURT. The project, which is now getting underway, focuses on the mobility of young people, particularly children and adolescents aged six to 15. Human geographer Sina Steele from Goethe University and Heike Marquart from the Institute of Transport Research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) successfully secured funding for the junior research group titled “From the ‘Backseat Generation’ to Pioneers of the Mobility Transition? Mobility Practices, Spatial Design, and Participation of Children and Adolescents as Co-Researchers for a Social-Ecological Transformation of the Region” (CoFoKids) from the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). The group, which consists of a team of three doctoral students and two post-docs, has been awarded €3.2 million for the next five years to investigate how mobility research and planning focused on children and adolescents, as well as their involvement in transformation processes, can advance the mobility transition and contribute to sustainable and resilient urban-rural regions for all residents. The research is specifically designed to actively involve young people as co-researchers within a transdisciplinary living lab operated together with two Frankfurt schools as well as various local and regional stakeholders. It is this group, after all, that knows best what is needed for their generation to become part of their region’s social-ecological transformation.
Sina Steele has been passionate about mobility for quite some time. Having studied geography, she completed a master’s degree in human geography with a thesis on walking and spatial conflicts on Frankfurt’s Schweizer Straße. Her doctoral research, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, focused on car-reduced neighborhood developments and how the planning visions of these mobility concepts align with the expectations and practices of residents. Now she is turning her attention to younger generations and their needs. The 34-year-old researcher firmly believes: “What children and adolescents want for public spaces ultimately benefits everyone.”
Before exploring the wishes and ideas of children and adolescents, the project will first examine how the complex mobility of children and their families is organized – or rather, how families manage their everyday travel. This is the focus of the first of three project areas, each led by a doctoral researcher. Under the theme “Mobility Practices,” the project will investigate how children and adolescents are mobile in their daily lives and how active and independent mobility can be encouraged, both on the way to school and for leisure trips. “Of course, decisions are not made in isolation; they depend on transportation options and personal circumstances,” Sina Steele explains. They are also influenced by the behavior of the adults involved.
The second focus area, “Planning Practices,” examines the ideas children and adolescents have about the design of the routes and spaces they use and how these ideas can be better integrated into planning processes. This area is led by project partner Heike Marquart, a transportation researcher at the German Aerospace Center in Berlin. Finally, the third focus area, “Participation Practices,” will develop formats to better involve children and adolescents in mobility transition processes.
“We want to understand how transformation processes in transportation, as well as life events or social influences, impact the mobility of young people and how their voices can be amplified in these processes,” says Sina Steele. She emphasizes that there is no need to start from scratch, as in recent years especially, significant progress has been made in this field. As such, young people were involved in developing Frankfurt’s pedestrian strategy, and so-called “Schulstrassen” featuring temporary restrictions on or closures for motor vehicle traffic have been expanded across the city. Steele hopes to build on these and similar initiatives to create synergy effects. Events like the city’s Mini Mobility Festival have shown that children often prioritize the quality of public spaces: less trash, reduced traffic, or safer crossings. Taking all suggestions seriously and carefully considering them, according to Steele, would constitute a true paradigm shift. Transferring the findings from Frankfurt to the Rhine-Main region and Berlin is also part of the plans.
The Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) is funding this project as part of its “Research for Sustainability” (FONA) strategy under funding code 01UU2506A.
Further Information
Dr. Sina Steele
Institute for Human Geography
Goethe University Frankfurt
Tel. +49 (0)69 798-35174
E-Mail steele@geo.uni-frankfurt.de
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