Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

Based on an anthropological study in organisations I will examine how organisational culture shapes employees’ everyday mobility practices and how co-created interventions could contribute to plural mobility futures beyond polarised narratives of sustainability.

Paper long abstract

Contemporary debates on sustainable mobility are increasingly shaped by polarised imaginaries, ranging from technological optimism versus societal collapse and individual responsibility versus structural constraint to the antagonistic framing of car drivers versus cyclists. These oppositions often render mobility futures as either inevitable or unattainable, limiting the space for meaningful intervention.

Drawing on an ongoing doctoral research project, I will present findings from an anthropological study conducted in organisations in Tartu, Estonia. Using participant observation, in-depth interviews, and co-creational approach, the research examines how sustainability is perceived and embedded in daily life and how contextual factors (organisational culture, leadership practices, work arrangements, social relationships, but also work conditions and infrastructure) shape employees’ mobility practices. I approach mobility as culturally embedded and socially negotiated practice.

I will further reflect on co-creation workshops carried out with employees, in which mobility-related interventions are collaboratively designed. The workshops create a space for employees to actively shape and commit to interventions they are willing to try out, while enabling to explore what participants consider feasible, negotiable, and worth experimenting with. These workshops function as interventional sites that seek to unsettle polarised mobility imaginaries – such as car dependence versus diversified mobility practices – by foregrounding situated practices, collective negotiation, and context-sensitive possibilities.

Small-scale, relational, and experimental interventions can reconfigure polarised futures from within, offering alternatives to dominant sustainability narratives. By situating interventions within everyday organisational life, I argue that anthropology can move beyond critique and understanding alone and take an active role in shaping mobility futures.