Co-evolution of Technical and Social Change in Action: Hasselt's Approach to Urban Mobility

Abstract

Much contemporary sustainability policy is a mix of a little bit of technological fix and a little bit of social campaigning. But this seemingly fair compromise misses important potentials for concrete progress towards a more sustainable society. What is needed instead is a synergistic, strategically synchronized or co-evolutionary relationship between technical and social change. The mobility policy in the Belgian city of Hasselt, presented as the empirical core of this paper, provides support for this position. Its underlying principle is the attempt to make more sustainable behaviours attractive through a coherent set of policy, social and urban design interventions. What makes this case successful is not just its massive scale but the synergistic coherence of all measures. Hasselt is therefore a case from which mobility experts - technophiles and technophobes alike - can learn.

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