Each year, the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies funds several projects led by VUB research groups and researchers. Each of the awarded projects engages with the broad field of urban studies and with concepts linked to inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives on cities and ‘the urban’, comparative urbanism and engaged research connecting academia with other actors and networks. One of the awarded projects is Urban Transit Lab, led by the Mobilise Research Group.
Brussels Urban Transit Lab (BUTL) is a participatory media, communication and research project designed to raise awareness about the benefits of sustainable modes of mobility, focusing on walking and public transport as a vital dimension of a walkable city and core feature of sustainable urban development. The project also focuses on issues of accessibility and the lifestyle of individuals relying on these modes as their primary mode of mobility via the participation of city inhabitants themselves. The project is designed to provide ‘first time experiences’ and introduce participants to using one or more such modes for their daily commutes.
The project follows a participatory action research approach to explore how public transport is embedded in popular narratives in the Brussels context, how personal experience and peer-learning from other users’ experiences can support modal shift and if non-financial incentives such as social media exposure can facilitate modal shift.
The project fosters a multi-disciplinary approach to commuting in cities, recruiting 12 inhabitants of the Brussels Region to participate in a programme during which they ‘report’ on their commuter experience and lifestyle via their chosen media. Such media can include photography, social media, art, blogging and essays. Semi-structured interviews before, during and after the campaign (36 in total) will be carried out with the participants that will be analysed through content analysis.
The project will have tangible results in the form of online content (photography, social media, art, blogs), a series of events to interact with the participants and the broader stakeholder network and academic output in the form of a journal paper.
The project is a collaboration between the VUB Mobilise Research Group, the Schumacher Institute (Bristol, UK) and STIB/MIVB, the public transport operator in Brussels.