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Gamifying the city: E-scooters and the critical tensions of playful urban mobility
Abstract
This article builds on previous scholarship on urban play, playable cities, and gamification by focusing on the contemporary relationship between play and mobility in cities. The article applies Floch’s semiotic square of valorisations to urban mobility by examining the values that are employed to make sense of movement through the city. The model is developed through Caillois’ forms of play: chance, competition, simulation, and vertigo. The model of playful urban mobility is contextualized in relation to historic and contemporary forms of playful urban activity to illustrate the multiple ways in which play is valorised within mundane, everyday practices of urban mobility. The tensions between playful and practical consequences of these different valorisations of play are located and expanded through a case study of the uptake of the e-scooter drawing on news coverage and promotional materials. The case of the e-scooter illustrates how playful urban mobility marks new connections between civic concerns of data security, physical safety, inclusivity, and urban sustainability, in the field of mobility. The key contribution of this article is an applied model of playful urban mobility which uses the e-scooter to illustrate the potential critical tensions that characterise playful and gamified forms of mobility and transportation.
... To identify the themes we considered the context of the study, the research gap and the results. Urban gamification Wallius et al. 2022 Service quality Pasca et al. 2021 The need to change citizens' behaviour has emerged in most of the reviewed papers. ...
... The theme of Urban Gamification includes a study that analyses the contemporary forms of playful urban activity that allows to reinterpret and rediscover the city. The case of the e-scooter illustrates how playful urban mobility marks new connections between civic concerns of data security, physical safety, inclusivity, and urban sustainability (Wallius et al. 2022). ...
... Through the game mechanics, it is possible to discover and interact with the city and its services. Playful urban mobility marks new connections between civic concerns of data security, physical safety, inclusivity, and urban sustainability (Wallius et al. 2022). ...
The chapter aims to understand the role of gamification in sustainable urban transitions. In several European countries, environmental issues and the consequent adverse effects on the planet have attracted policymakers, companies, consumers and academics (McKenzie in Comput Environ Urban Syst 79, 2020). Cities must transform into increasingly sustainable and intelligent smart cities, generating synergies between different sectors and companies and providing citizens with more efficient and easily usable products/services. In this regard, transport is a crucial service industry in the transition towards urban sustainability. This chapter will focus on the role of gamification in sustainable mobility and the urban transition process. The study adopted a systematic literature review approach to summarize existing knowledge on gamification in the transport field. The review synthesized 40 studies highlighting the bibliometric characteristics, the main gamification outputs’ and research gaps detecting potential implications and relevant insights for service literature. The research has evidenced how gamification can change consumer behavior by creating and increasing loyalty and engagement, raising awareness of environmental issues or developing an eco-friendly lifestyle. The study provides a systematic literature review investigating gamification's role in sustainable urban mobility. The findings present managerial implications and some insights for companies and policymakers into implementing gamification to pursue the sustainable urban transition.KeywordsGamificationSustainable mobilityUrban transitionSmart cities
... They found that incorporating functional elements of games, such as scores and badges, into the application design had a positive impact on solving urban mobility problems [38,53,69]. While the above studies apply the functional elements of games to products or services, Wallius et al. [85] focus on the experiential element of games, playfulness. Their research presents a framework for evaluating and understanding playful urban mobility based on Floch's semiotic square of valorisations [18]. ...
... Their research presents a framework for evaluating and understanding playful urban mobility based on Floch's semiotic square of valorisations [18]. They investigated the case of electric scooters as an example of playful mobility, and were able to identify the values and practical issues of playful and gamified forms of mobility in response to this framework [85]. ...
There are numerous benefits from regularly walking in nature, and today's mobile technologies have the potential to encourage people to do so. Past research has showed that gamified map-based apps and location-based games (LBGs) have the capability to incentivize people to go to nature areas in cities and beyond. In this study, we explored LBGs' potential to bring people to nature by conducting a field experiment with a new mechanic called Routes in the popular LBG Pokémon GO. Prior to the Route feature's launch, we created altogether 13 Routes of various lengths in both city and nature landscapes. We collected numerical in-game data of how many times each Route was walked and deployed a survey (n=67) for Pokémon GO players in the area where the Routes were made. The findings suggest that proximity to population concentrations and in-game rewards are key drivers of Route popularity. Players' motivators to choose nature Routes over urban Routes were limited to outside-the-game factors such as scenery, and overall in our experiment the urban Routes turned out to be more popular.
... In terms of their use, e-scooters have been held responsible for creating new conflicts between users and non-users by adding an additional mode to the already overcrowded shared space of public roads and pavements (Tuncer and Brown, 2020), with e-scooter riders generally being seen as a danger to non-users and all those with whom they share the urban space (Wallius et al., 2021). A lack of properly designed and designated scooter infrastructure has been suggested to increase tensions amongst users and non-users including pedestrians, motorised vehicles, and cyclists in public spaces as they compete for already limited available capacity (Hosseinzadeh et al., 2021). ...
... Riders having a lack of equipment (particularly helmets), not using the scooters properly (including the use of indicators) and not riding responsibly on the roads were all issues mentioned in the stories of non-users. This interlinks with the idea of e-scooter riders being seen as a general danger to non-users with whom they share the space (Wallius et al., 2021). Some non-users suggested the need for e-scooter training to be mandatory before riding. ...
E-scooters are the fastest-growing form of micro-mobility, riding a wave of popularity in recent years; in many cities, they have sparked something akin to an urban personal mobility revolution. Despite their popularity, e-scooters raise several challenges for policymakers and transport providers, and are a divisive mode on the streets. Reports of conflict and tension around e-scooters' safety are common. In addition, there are questions about what mode trips e-scooters are substituting. However, to date there remain few academic studies into user and non-user experiences. This study focused on a UK e-scooter trial, using a mixed methods approach to collect data from 222 participants. The focus of this paper's analysis is on participants' qualitative "scooter stories", supported by quantitative data that provides broader insight into the scooters' use and demographic patterns. We find that on the positive side, e-scooters are useful, affordable, enjoyable and flexible; they provide a viable alternative to some urban car trips and can be linked to active travel. However, whist scooters are sometimes replacing car trips, they are more often substituting walking or cycling, a challenging finding from a health and sustainability perspective. E-scooters exacerbate conflicts between users of urban space: we explore legality, safety of riders and non-riders, impacts on pavement and road space, intoxicated riding, and more. We present our findings in the context of sustainable urban mobility policy, making recommendations for policymakers and other stakeholders seeking to mitigate the impacts of e-scooters, and harness the sustainable mobility benefits of this popular new mode.
... Dockless shared riding, where e-scooters are not required to be returned to designated locations, provides convenience for riders and is reported as one of the main motivations for choosing this mode of riding, as it eliminates the need to search for parking (Hardt & Bogenberger, 2019). However, this practice leads to the problem of illegal parking, with e-scooters blocking paths and being discarded, posing a significant hazard to pedestrians (James et al., 2019;Liao & Correia, 2020;Sikka, Vila, Stratton, Ghassemi, & Pourmand, 2019;Stigson et al., 2021;Wallius, Thibault, Apperley, & Hamari, 2021). Blocking traffic/pedestrians and obstructing disabled people/public infrastructures were among the main reasons e-scooter operations were banned in 29 cities across the US after their pilot programs (Ma, 2021). ...
The proliferation of e-scooters in urban spaces has introduced safety concerns despite their potential to reduce traffic congestion and provide an environmentally friendly solution for short-distance trips. This study consolidates existing knowledge on e-scooter safety through a systematic literature review of 168 academic studies and grey literature, following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Our primary objective is to identify the key e-scooter safety concerns from existing literature, together with the strategies stakeholders use to address these concerns, and highlight areas for further research. . The literature shows that e-scooter riders are commonly injured in single-vehicle incidents, with a clear association between severe injuries and violations of traffic rules such as speeding and
alcohol consumption. Frequently recommended safety measures include separating e-scooters from pedestrians, instituting licensing and mandatory training, and enforcing helmet usage and zero alcohol consumption. On top of that, clear legislative definitions for e-scooters ease and improve enforcement, and setting technical requirements for e-scooter design can improve stability, handling performance, and reduce incidents.
Understanding the differences between user types and the underlying factors influencing risky behaviour is crucial for developing effective interventions. Users of shared schemes often lack knowledge of rules and have poorer riding skills, possibly due to their less frequent use. Conversely, private e-scooter owners pose enforcement challenges for speeding and prohibited riding, as these scooters lack geofencing and tracking capabilities often found in shared scheme escooters. Helmet non-use, where mandatory, is attributed to a lack of support from riders for
increased law enforcement and a low perception of risk rather than a lack of knowledge about the laws. Similarly, illegal sidewalk riding is linked to factors of comfort and convenience rather than infrastructure preference or unawareness of illegality. Proactive measures that are user-based, time-based, and location-based require further investigation. Consistently collecting and analysing data informs region-specific safety decisions and allows policymakers to monitor safety risks over time and assess intervention effectiveness, which are largely absent in current
literature.
... The UK National Evaluation (Arup and NatCen Social Research, 2022) found older people felt less safe as a pedestrian around e-scooters and Bozovic et al. (2023) found additionally that disabled people felt less safe around people riding e-scooters. Wallius et al. (2022) reminds us that many users ride e-scooters as they are a fun form of transport, the kinesthetic quality of the ride being a strong motivator for use. They note this ludic aspect plays out in tensions between other parts of civic life, including safety, urban accessibility, privacy and privatization. ...
... This is a modified PESTLE framework, with a more detailed breakdown of technical features. For EIM tools, this analysis (non-exhaustively) covered: 'ecological footprint (EF) only' tools 4 or tools which combined EF with climate action features (Platform typologies), Life Cycle Analyses (LCA) methodologies and crowdsourcing features (see [91]) (Analytics and data management), ubiquitous carbon footprint trackers (see [98]) and machine learning tools (see [29]) (Technology integration), the commercial models of carbon offset apps (Economic factors and business model), and features to promote lowcarbon lifestyles (Social design). For CE tools, this analysis (nonexhaustively) covered: classifications of civic engagement tools under Esri's seven categories [100] and Desouza and Bhagwatwar's (2014) four archetypes [23] (P), discussion boards and voting/polling systems on engagement platforms (A), the use of building information modelling (BIM) (see [21]) and blockchain smart contracts (see [5]) (T), various funding structures (public/private) (E), and health, safety, and wellbeing features/considerations (S). ...
We use the Capabilities Approach to understand the ways in which e-scooters, as transportation resources, provide qualities that contribute to the ability of the transport system to enable people to participate in society. Government-led trials have been taking place in the UK since autumn 2020, focused on the provision of sharing schemes and with the intention of creating an evidence base on usership and contextual issues. This paper draws from a mixed-methods study in Greater Manchester, combining online surveys, reference groups and qualitative interviews. The findings suggest that e-scooters have a potential role in expanding the reach and boosting the reliability and flexibility of the transport system. Their relationship with safety is complex. Road safety concerns and issues relating to sharing space present barriers. Conversely, in relation to personal safety, e-scooters provide an alternative to walking through areas in which people may otherwise feel unsafe. For some, e-scooters offer a more affordable alternative to public transport and ride-hailing, but the unpredictability of cost, stemming from the per-minute costing model, can pose challenges for others. The low level of exertion can distinguish e-scooters from other micromobility options and, whilst some might therefore question their value in health terms when compared with other active modes of transport, people with conditions that mean they need to carefully manage their energy expenditure can therefore find e-scooters useful. These potential benefits should however be considered in the context of challenges relating to shared space for walking, cycling and e-scooting.
This paper investigates how play practices affect players’ relationships with the urban environment through the bodily movement and performances that characterize them. Building on a definition of playful behavior derived by semiotics of culture, we investigate urban play from the perspective of motor praxology to outline how movement is central for the experience of the players. We then concentrate on the role of semiotic valorizations in different urban contexts, notably the famous typology of Metro users by Floch and different kinds of ludic mobility. Finally, we combine these two perspectives with the zemic model realized within existential semiotics in order to create a typology or urban players as well as urban playful enunciation modes.
Personal Mobility Devices such as skateboards and scooters are increasingly considered a form of active transportation in dense urban environments. Understanding the experience of users is paramount, especially for cities intent on implementing efficient policies that promote sustainable futures. To meet this need, the research examined the dynamic relationships between the built environment and PMD users in Los Angeles, California. The data used in this study were derived from Instagram posts, and we implemented a participatory digital-photo/diary methodology to investigate how travelers responded to urban features. Our findings suggest that many riders encountered rough surfaces and difficult transitions. Additionally, several built environment types, including well-maintained surfaces, were noted for the relative ease with which they could be ridden. The overall findings tell us that cities need to acknowledge this evidence and apply this toward long-term efforts set on facilitating these active mobilities in an urban setting. ARTICLE HISTORY
This study applies a life cycle assessment (LCA) to the shared dockless standing e-scooter system that is established in Brussels. The results are given for four impact categories: global warming potential (GWP), particulate matter formation, mineral resource, and fossil resource scarcity. Regarding GWP, the use of the shared e-scooters in the current system causes 131 g of CO2-eq. per passenger-kilometer while the mode of transportation displaced has an impact of 110 g of CO2-eq. Thus, at present, the use of e-scooters shows a higher impact than the transportation modes they replace. The high results for the shared e-scooter, in terms of GWP, are mainly caused by the short lifespan of the shared e-scooter. Nevertheless, as the market further matures, the lifespan of e-scooters could increase and the impact per kilometer travelled could decrease accordingly. Regarding the use of the personal e-scooter, the LCA results show an impact of around 67 g of CO2-eq. This study quantifies the LC impacts of the current situation based on local, ‘real-life’ data. However, potential changes on soft mobility patterns induced by the use-oriented product-service system (PSS), such as a shared e-scooter system, could not be quantified.
Throughout the world, cities seek to ease transport-related problems of congestion, air pollution, noise, and traffic injuries. Urban transport planners have welcomed e-scooters as an alternative to motorized individual transport, specifically the car. The public has met e-scooters with both enthusiasm and scepticism, as cities have struggled with unforeseen outcomes such as forms of irresponsible riding, cluttering, or vandalism. This paper investigates the challenges associated with the introduction of e-scooters in ten major cities, based on a content analysis of local media reports. News items (n = 173) were identified through Internet searches and include print media, TV and radio websites. Concerns prior to and after the introduction of e-scooters are assessed, analysed, and interpreted in the context of new policies for this transport mode. Results suggest that many cities have moved through trial and error stages in their search for appropriate leg- islation. The paper concludes that it is prudent for urban planners to introduce policies regarding maximum speeds, mandatory use of bicycle infrastructure, and dedicated parking, as well as to limit the number of licensed operators. Where negative public opinion can be averted, e-scooters stand a chance to become a disruptive niche innovation with the potential to transform urban transport systems.
Cycling is increasingly seen as a solution to a large variety of urban problems, and as such continues to inspire innovations that aim to upscale cycling to unprecedented levels. Taken to the extreme, these ideas promise a future ‘Velotopia’ in which cycling constitutes a dominant or single mobility mode. Focusing its attention on Dutch cycling innovations and two recently envisaged cycling utopias by Steven Fleming and Cosmin Popan, the present paper offers a critical exploration of current velotopian urban imaginaries. It does so by tracing their ideological ancestry back to two visionary urban designs of the 20th century: the dense city of speed and efficiency of Le Corbusier, and the endless Babylon of Constant where mobility is a means of discovery, play and human interaction. Our analysis shows that both Corbusian and Constantian understandings of mobility are reflected in current velotopian imaginaries, not only in opposition but also in combination with each other. This combination of Corbusian and Constantian velotopian imaginaries, we suggest, has largely become part of mainstream urban discourses instead of providing a radical alternative to them.
Since 2018, pedestrians in many U.S. cities have been sharing sidewalk space with dockless shared e-scooters. The introduction of e-scooters has received pushback from pedestrians. Complaints reported in the media include e-scooters blocking walkways and sidewalks when parked illegally as well as safety concerns from pedestrians who do not feel safe around moving e-scooters. However, little is known beyond a few initial studies on e-scooter parking and anecdotes about pedestrian perceptions of e-scooter safety. Our case study from Rosslyn, Virginia, helps shed light on these two issues. First, we conducted a survey of 181 e-scooter riders and non-riders asking about their perceived safety around riders of e-scooters and experiences of sidewalks blocked by e-scooters. We found highly divergent responses about safety and sidewalk blocking perceptions from riders and non-riders. Second, we conducted an observational study of 606 parked e-scooters along three mixed-use corridors in Rosslyn to investigate the relationship between the built environment and e-scooter parking. We found that 16% of 606 observed e-scooters were not parked properly and 6% (36 e-scooters) were blocking pedestrian right-of-way. Moreover, our survey showed that e-scooter trips in Rosslyn replaced trips otherwise taken by Uber, Lyft, or a taxi (39%), foot (33%), bicycle (12%), bus (7%), or car (7%).
Introduction
Since their release in 2017, standing electric motorized scooters (eScooters) have risen in popularity as an alternative mode of transportation. We sought to examine the incidence of injury, injury patterns, prevalence of helmet and drug and alcohol use in eScooter trauma.
Methods
This was a multi-institutional retrospective case series of patients admitted for injuries related to operation of an eScooter following the widespread release of these devices in September 2017 (September 1, 2017 to October 31, 2018). Demographics, drug and alcohol use, helmet use, admission vitals, injuries, procedures, hospital and intensive care unit length of stay (LOS), death, and disposition were analyzed.
Results
103 patients were admitted during the study period, and monthly admissions increased significantly over time. Patients were young men (mean age 37.1 years; 65% male), 98% were not wearing a helmet. Median LOS was 1 day (IQR 1–3). 79% of patients were tested for alcohol and 48% had a blood alcohol level >80 mg/dL. 60% of patients had a urine toxicology screen, of which 52% were positive. Extremity fractures were the most frequent injury (42%), followed by facial fractures (26%) and intracranial hemorrhage (18%). Median Injury Severity Score was 5.5 (IQR 5–9). One-third of patients (n=34) required an operative intervention, the majority of which were open fixations of extremity and facial fractures. No patients died during the study. The majority of patients were discharged home (86%).
Conclusion
eScooter-related trauma has significantly increased over time. Alcohol and illicit substance use among these patients was common, and helmet use was extremely rare. Significant injuries including intracranial hemorrhage and fractures requiring operative intervention were present in over half (51%) of patients. Interventions aimed at increasing helmet use and discouraging eScooter operation while intoxicated are necessary to reduce the burden of eScooter-related trauma.
Level of evidence
Level IV.
Our paper focuses on toyification. By this phenomenon, we point to two, parallel
developments: 1) The increasing prestige of toys, which start to find their way in
classrooms, art museums, fashion and so on, influencing in this way other
languages, and, 2) The deliberate attempt to design products according to toy
aesthetics in order to make them more appealing. More specifically, toyification
communicates the idea of an entity (physical, digital or hybrid) being intentionally
reinforced with toyish elements or dimensions; an object, a structure, an
application, a character or a technology designed to acquire a toyish appearance,
form or function.
Keywords: Adult play, design, gamification, ludification, playification, toyification
Shared stand-up electric scooters are now offered in many cities as an option for short-term rental, and marketed for short-distance travel. Using life cycle assessment, we quantify the total environmental impacts of this mobility option associated with global warming, acidification, eutrophication, and respiratory impacts. We find that environmental burdens associated with charging the e-scooter are small relative to materials and manufacturing burdens of the e-scooters and the impacts associated with transporting the scooters to overnight charging stations. The results of a Monte Carlo analysis show an average value of life cycle global warming impacts of 202 g CO2-eq/passenger-mile, driven by materials and manufacturing (50%), followed by daily collection for charging (43% of impact). We illustrate the potential to reduce life cycle global warming impacts through improved scooter collection and charging approaches, including the use of fuel-efficient vehicles for collection (yielding 177 g CO2-eq/passenger-mile), limiting scooter collection to those with a low battery state of charge (164 g CO2-eq/passenger-mile), and reducing the driving distance per scooter for e-scooter collection and distribution (147 g CO2-eq/passenger-mile). The results prove to be highly sensitive to e-scooter lifetime; ensuring that the shared e-scooters are used for two years decreases the average life cycle emissions to 141 g CO2-eq/passenger-mile. Under our Base Case assumptions, we find that the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with e-scooter use is higher in 65% of our Monte Carlo simulations than the suite of modes of transportation that are displaced. This likelihood drops to 35%-50% under our improved and efficient e-scooter collection processes and only 4% when we assume two-year e-scooter lifetimes. When e-scooter usage replaces average personal automobile travel, we nearly universally realize a net reduction in environmental impacts.
In the past year, transportation rental companies, including Bird, Lime, and Spin, have dropped hundreds of thousands of rental scooters across North America. Relying on mobile apps and scooter-mounted GPS units, these devices have access to a wide-variety of consumer data, including location, phone number, phone metadata, and more. Pairing corroborated phone and scooter GPS data with a last-mile transportation business model, scooter companies are able to collect a unique, highly identifying dataset on users. Data collected by these companies can be utilized by internal researchers or sold to advertisers and data brokers. Access to so much consumer data, however, poses serious security risks. Although Bird, Lime, and Spin posit electric scooters as environmentally friendly and accessible transportation, they also allow for unethical uses of user data through vaguely-worded terms of service. To promote more equitable transportation practices, this article will explore the implications of dockless scooter geotracking, as well as related infrastructure, privacy, and data security ramifications.
Importance
Since September 2017, standing electric scooters have proliferated rapidly as an inexpensive, easy mode of transportation. Although there are regulations for safe riding established by both electric scooter companies and local governments, public common use practices and the incidence and types of injuries associated with these standing electric scooters are unknown.
Objective
To characterize injuries associated with standing electric scooter use, the clinical outcomes of injured patients, and common use practices in the first US metropolitan area to experience adoption of this technology.
Design, Setting, and Participants
This study of a case series used retrospective cohort medical record review of all patients presenting with injuries associated with standing electric scooter use between September 1, 2017, and August 31, 2018, at 2 urban emergency departments associated with an academic medical center in Southern California. All electric scooter riders at selected public intersections in the community surrounding the 2 hospitals were also observed during a 7-hour observation period in September 2018.
Main Outcomes and Measures
Incidence and characteristics of injuries and observation of riders’ common use practices.
Results
Two hundred forty-nine patients (145 [58.2%] male; mean [SD] age, 33.7 [15.3] years) presented to the emergency department with injuries associated with standing electric scooter use during the study period. Two hundred twenty-eight (91.6%) were injured as riders and 21 (8.4%) as nonriders. Twenty-seven patients were younger than 18 years (10.8%). Ten riders (4.4%) were documented as having worn a helmet, and 12 patients (4.8%) had either a blood alcohol level greater than 0.05% or were perceived to be intoxicated by a physician. Frequent injuries included fractures (79 [31.7%]), head injury (100 [40.2%]), and contusions, sprains, and lacerations without fracture or head injury (69 [27.7%]). The majority of patients (234 [94.0%]) were discharged home from the emergency department; of the 15 admitted patients, 2 had severe injuries and were admitted to the intensive care unit. Among 193 observed electric scooter riders in the local community in September 2018, 182 (94.3%) were not wearing a helmet.
Conclusions and Relevance
Injuries associated with standing electric scooter use are a new phenomenon and vary in severity. In this study, helmet use was low and a significant subset of injuries occurred in patients younger than 18 years, the minimum age permitted by private scooter company regulations. These findings may inform public policy regarding standing electric scooter use.
In recent years, location-based augmented reality games such as Pokémon Go have become increasingly popular. These games not only afford a novel gaming experience, but also have the potential to alter how players view their physical realities and alter the dynamics of traditional game play from its sedentary nature towards a more physical one. In this paper we investigate what kinds of players (achievement, immersion or social interaction-oriented) are more likely to derive health benefits from playing augmented reality games. We employ online survey data gathered among players of Pokémon Go (N=1190). The results show that playing location-based augmented reality games has a positive association with perceived mental, physical and social health outcomes overall. The results also suggest that the way in which players approach the game and what kinds of aspects of the game they emphasize can have a differential dynamic on how the health benefits of the game manifest. Results show that social gaming orientation is positively associated with physical, mental and social health outcomes, whereas achievement and immersion orientations are associated with physical and mental health outcomes.
The paper presents the final results of the Italian pilots of Pro-E-Bike, a project funded under the Intelligent Energy Europe programme, started on April 2013 and ending on March 2016 (www.pro-e-bike.org). The project promotes clean and energy efficient vehicles, analyses the performance of electric bicycles and electric scooters for the delivering of goods in urban areas and tests the use of these vehicles in seven European countries with thirty-nine companies, both freight transport operators, companies that deliver their own products and services providers, in order to demonstrate that light electric vehicles can replace traditional combustion engine ones contributing on mitigating logistic impacts in urban areas. Pilots enabled the demonstration of measurable effects in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions and energy savings in urban transport: related data about environmental and social effects resulted by the introduction of e-bikes and e-scooters are shown, with a particular focus on the economic sustainability of these replacements.
With the widespread use of synthetic fibers and the impact of youth culture by the 1960s, many menswear retailers and manufacturers of wool and cotton resorted to more inventive ways to symbolize the heritage and quality of their products. This article focuses on how one campaign in particular, Dormeuil's “Cloth for Men” of 1968-75, dealt with this double impetus and interrogates how its alphapictorial rhetoric connotes the ludic and utopian valorizations of lifestyle, escapism, and luxury that Jean-Marie Floch elaborated with the semiotic square. In 1973 and 1974, for instance, German model Veruschka von Lehndorff appeared in the campaign, wearing 1930s-styled clothing, while the copy and mise en scène of the same ads evoked a nineteenth-century sensibility. Veruschka also “doubled up” to play both “male” and “female” parts. Thus I analyze how the gender ambiguities and crisscrossing of time connoted in the rhetoric of the ads perform what Jane Gaines has called a “homosexual/heterosexual flip-flop,” and how the knowing transvestism, style, and visual decor they represent overlap with Susan Sontag's notion of Camp as “Being-as-Playing-a-Role.” Finally, I address how the ads link the idea of looking good to feeling good, evincing Merleau-Ponty's contention that there exists “an inscription of the touching in the visible, of the seeing in the tangible—and the converse.
This article provides a detailed ethnographic description of skateboarding's main career opportunities and contributes to arguments about subculture theory and the impact of specific subcultures on cities. Professional street skateboarders perform tricks on obstacles in the urban environment and publish these tricks in magazines and videos to share with other members of the subculture. This need for documentation and dissemination of skateboard tricks, as well as the need to design and distribute subculture media, skateboards and skateboarding products, makes skateboarding a self-sustaining industry and provides skaters with an opportunity for subculture careers. These careers are in skating and also the ancillary careers necessary to support this industry. These subculture careers have a positive impact on individual skaters by providing opportunities, in many cases where none existed, and also upon the urban centers where this industry is most prominent by drawing creative, talented people to the city to participate in the subculture and quite possibly even make a career. © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.
Studies of risk perception examine the judgements people make when they are asked to characterize and evaluate hazardous activities
and technologies. This research aims to aid risk analysis and policy-making by providing a basis for understanding and anticipating
public responses to hazards and improving the communication of risk information among lay people, technical experts, and decision-makers.
This work assumes that those who promote and regulate health and safety need to understand how people think about and respond
to risk. Without such understanding, well-intended policies may be ineffective.
Electric mobility can be seen as the element capable of breaking the current model "non-sustainable" road transport. It is able to promote a "green revolution" for a smarter mobility and integrated with other sectors of the economy especially with the energy sector. The idea to integrate renewable energy sources, in this case photovoltaic system, with the electric mobility can bring many economic benefits to the environment, both at the urban level and not alone, so much so that it is taken up a route for the future of mobility. The aim of this work describe a possible project of green mobility for a Campus, based on power from renewable sources in order to feed a system of shared transport, in order to optimize traffic flows of vehicles. In this mode, it is possible to have a zero impact of CO2 emissions.
The themes of environment and of its preservation are nowadays at the very centre of business internal communication. This article presents the first results of a research on internal newspapers of some big Belgian businesses, in order to observe the presence of these themes. The research has a semiotic and narratological orientation, and it has been focused on two points. The first is the incarnation of the “great narrative” of the environment and its protection in the micro-narratives of good exemplary practices, as they are presented in the examined internal newspapers. The second is the way of building the environmental value of practices and behaviors of businesses and their staff.
This paper proposes an approach to mobility that takes both historical mobilities and forms of immobility seriously. It is argued that is important for the development of a politics of mobility. To do this it suggests that mobility can be thought of as an entanglement of movement, representation, and practice. Following this it argues for a more finely developed politics of mobility that thinks below the level of mobility and immobility in terms of motive force, speed, rhythm, route, experience, and friction. Finally, it outlines a notion of constellations of mobility that entails considering the historical existence of fragile senses of movement, meaning, and practice marked by distinct forms of mobile politics and regulation.
Participatory design methods face challenges when designing for a widespread youth community. In such projects, it is not enough to design in collaboration with a few selected individuals; one must also strive to understand the community at a deeper level and incorporate its values and practices into the design solution. We report on our process of designing with, and for, an identified youth group: the Parkour and Freerunning community. We show how the successful design relied not only on employing methods of participatory observation and participatory design, but also on acquiring an understanding of the practice as a "fun community", valuing play over achievement and competition.
This study evaluated the relationships between sensation seeking and impulsivity, appraisal of risk in several areas including crime, financial, social violations, sports, and risk of AIDS from sexual activity, and risky behavior in the same areas. Subjects were 447 undergraduates who were given personality tests, and risk appraisal and risky behavior scales developed from factor analyses. Multiple regression analyses showed perceived peer behavior and sensation seeking to be strong predictors of risky behavior, particularly in the areas of criminal behavior and social violations. Personal risk appraisal was negatively related to risky behavior for all the areas except AIDS risk where it was positively related to risky sexual behavior for men. Structural equation modeling analyses showed that a model specifying that risk appraisal trait is a consequences of risky behavior was superior to a model with risk appraisal as a mediator of the relationship between sensation seeking and risky behavior.
Several ill-related lines of inquiry deal with problems of ‘risk’ and ‘perceived risk’. First, there is a handful of formal definitions of risk, and a line of normative-descriptive research on human decision making. Second, there is a social-clinical psychological body of theory and evidence on topics like stress, risk tolerance, and emergency decision making. And recently, a multi-disciplinary literature is developing on ‘risk analysis’. In it, one frequently encounters such ‘aspects of risk’ as ‘voluntariness of exposure’, ‘controllability of consequences’ and ‘catastrophality’. In this paper we will discuss contributions from these research lines in relation to one another. Our primary interest, however, lies in a ‘psychological categorization’ and a rational ordering of the many possible aspects of risk. Implications and the potential value of these schemes are discussed.
Smart city technologies offer the potential to address issues of sustainability and efficiency in cities. Continuous monitoring, geotracking and ubiquitous computing offer tools for engaging citizens, influence their behaviour and measuring its impact on the city. These technologies, however, are not neutral: if handled in a top-down way, give rise to many concerns (e.g. privacy, instrumentalist urban planning etc.). In this chapter, we illustrate an alternative, playful approach to urban sustainability, based on playable cities and on different ludic strategies. To do so, we will reflect on two playful artifacts created within the Mobility Urban Value (MUV) Project and aiming to make cities more sustainable. The first artifact in an app that helps citizens in making sustainable mobility choices by transforming commuting in a gameful experience and rewarding sustainable choices. The second artifact developed within MUV is Asphyxia , a screen-less device simulating the breathing movements of living lungs as a poetic way of communicating air quality and presenting an artefact that is non-solutionist, open to interpretation, aesthetically complex, and playful.
This chapter, hence, is built around: a reflective account of the ideation, design, implementation, and deployment of the two artifacts, a short set of “designer interviews” with their creators and an artefact critique / semiotic analysis of the various digital and physical artefacts composing this project. Drawing on these perspectives, the chapter will outline an approach for urban sustainability based on playfulness and ludicity.
The central city is once again hot. Many city areas where poor minorities were left behind during the decades-long suburban growth are experiencing a revival. New high-rise condominiums and other developments are drawing tens of thousands back to city spaces that were once considered undesirable. These ‘return to the city’ trends are supported in part by growth machine engines, such as Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and TIF (Tax Increment Financing) districts, often to the detriment of lower-income minority residents, who still find themselves trapped within the boundaries of spatial inequalities in the city. Drawing on six years of ethnographic fieldwork in Chicago, I show how public transportation is used to buttress the city’s growth machine, while simultaneously maintaining the boundaries of spatial and other types of inequalities. In doing so, I highlight how public transit is used to create and support growth along race (and class) lines. Specifically, I show how mobility and growth for Whites and predominantly White spaces in the city are proactively shaped through favorable new public transit development and revitalization initiatives such as TOD and TIF. At the same time, in predominantly Black and Latinx spaces, where intracommunity public transportation usage is high, new transit related development is below sparse or completely lacking, further fortifying transit and other spatial boundaries.
This article provides an analysis of the “dating app” Tinder as an aesthetic ludic artifact. By scrutinizing the title’s features of gameplay and expressive–interpretive social interaction, Tinder usage is set into a frame theory context and shown to operate by multiple overlapping frames that allow romantic engagement to be entered as play and vice versa.
Skateboarding is both a sport and a way of life. Creative, physical, graphic, urban and controversial, it is full of contradictions – a billion-dollar global industry which still retains its vibrant, counter-cultural heart.
Skateboarding and the City presents the only complete history of the sport, exploring the story of skate culture from the surf-beaches of '60s California to the latest developments in street-skating today. Written by a life-long skater who also happens to be an architectural historian, and packed through with full-colour images – of skaters, boards, moves, graphics, and film-stills – this passionate, readable and rigorously-researched book explores the history of skateboarding and reveals a vivid understanding of how skateboarders, through their actions, experience the city and its architecture in a unique way.
In this article, we draw from and develop existing ideas of spatial desire and emplacement to explore skateboarders’ skilful mobility and perceptive competence. By combining findings from Swedish and Danish ethnographic studies, we illustrate how skateboarders imagine and make new material encounters both in urban environments not originally built for skateboarding and in skateparks. These imaginations and makings include memories of previous material encounters and are a part of ongoing social negotiations, but they also have a component of imaginary novelty. Making and imagining are discussed as materialization and formation, which include the idea of active materials and sentient practitioners. Two types of material encounters were imagined and made: transitions and smooth lines. Subsequently, two characteristics of these types of encounters were described: “kind” and challenging. The processes of imagination and making took a mutual understanding for granted and deeply engaged the body in the ever-changing material environment. We argue that a conceptualization of spatial desire as emplaced and highly imaginable is fruitful for research on skateboarding and other movement cultures where engagements with materials come to the fore.
Location-based games use smartphones and other location-aware devices to incorporate their players’ actions in everyday, physical spaces – the streets and public spaces of the city – into the virtual world of the game. Scholars and designers of these games often claim that they reconfigure their players’ relationship with the people and environment around them. They argue these games either engage and immerse players more deeply in the spaces of the game or distance and detach them from the physical environment through the screen interface. To date, however, relatively few detailed empirical studies of these games have been undertaken to test out and critique these claims. This article presents a study of the 2017 iteration of the location-based augmented reality game Wayfinder Live, in which players use their phones to search for and scan urban codes hidden across Melbourne’s laneways, alleys, and public spaces. Players of the game were interviewed and invited to reflect on their experience. This article relates these experiences to the design and development of the game, particularly to five play design principles that characterize its approach to haptic play in urban space. We begin by outlining these principles and the motivations behind them. Then, drawing on an analysis of the player interviews, we evaluate the impact of the game on their perception of the city.
Traditionally, pedestrians were identified as singular entities with standard needs. Reality shows us that pedestrian diversity is a reality that is becoming increasingly complex. How does urban design face the changing reality of pedestrian typologies? In the same way that in the 20th century the car set aside horse carriages and pedestrians, in the 21st century pedestrians are returning to take centre stage with regard to motor vehicles, but with new formalizations that imply new considerations in the design of streets, many of they are still unsolved. Citizens strolling on scooters, skates, skateboard, segway, unicycles, are added to the already traditional baby strollers, wheelchairs, and suitcases with wheels … "pedestrians on wheels" that pose new challenges of coexistence and design. Own functional requirements to walk and maneuver, to see and be seen … functional requirements of coexistence with other pedestrians that make a different use of the street (people looking at shop windows, pedestrians with umbrellas, reading on the smartphone…) or changes of use of the same space when the conditions are different: snow, strong sun, fog, at night … These are considerations of Universal Accessibility and Design for all that we cannot leave out while our society progresses. This paper identifies some of these new needs and studies this new pedestrian mobility is carried out through a progressive analysis in three phases: 1 classification of the different user of the street, 2 study of the Personal Mobility Devices (PMD) and 3 the new accessibility barriers that arise with the use of PMD. As a result, some action strategies are pointed out to respond to the difficulties of accessibility derived from this new reality and to integrate them into the Universal Design of the urban public space.
In this chapter, we look at the representations of masculinity in gay-friendly printed adverts and commercials, focusing on the tensions between marketing and socio-political discourses that occur within them. We also offer a comparative perspective between gay-friendly advertising in Italy and in the USA, starting from two specific campaigns: “Findus Piramide” which consists of a series of commercials for the brand Findus broadcast in Italy in 2014 and Tiffany’s campaign “Will You?”, appearing in commercials and printed adverts in the USA in 2015. These examples reflect a new trend in advertising where non-heterosexual orientations are represented in a positive way and demonstrate that the representation of gay-friendly advertising is connected to marketing strategies and structured differently according to the cultural context and its acceptance of LGBT issues.
The first book to exhaustively review key recent research into playability in smart and digital cities.
- Addresses pervasive games and the relation between gameful and gamified applications and the design of playful architecture
- Includes special chapters on playful civic hacking applications and the use of urban data for playful applications
This book addresses the topic of playable cities, which use the ‘smartness’ of digital cities to offer their citizens playful events and activities. The contributions presented here examine various aspects of playable cities, including developments in pervasive and urban games, the use of urban data to design games and playful applications, architecture design and playability, and mischief and humor in playable cities.
The smartness of digital cities can be found in the sensors and actuators that are embedded in their environment. This smartness allows them to monitor, anticipate and support our activities and increases the efficiency of the cities and our activities. These urban smart technologies can offer citizens playful interactions with streets, buildings, street furniture, traffic, public art and entertainment, large public displays and public events.
Visual representation has always been an important dimension of youth culture. Academic studies frequently make great play of the style of groups such as punks and goths, arguing that clothing and bodily adornment function as symbolic statements of their rejection of mainstream values (e.g. Hebdige, 1979). Even so, the early ‘classic’ studies of youth subcultures typically accused the media of merely co-opting or colonising their more subversive elements. It was not until Sara Thornton’s work on club cultures (Thornton, 1995) that researchers turned their attention to the ways in which youth groups might positively use specialist or ‘niche’ media for their own purposes — not merely to disseminate information, but also to establish (and to regulate) collective identity.
Estimates suggest that tens of millions of people skateboard for transport and pleasure—it is a mobility practice both instrumental and playful. That play is important for creativity, connection, and positive affect is known. Yet skating is often typified as mere vandalism, despite the fact that, intrinsic worth aside, its hybridity is instructive: It invites consideration of the spatial politics of the street and the possibility of accommodating this and, indeed, other forms of “alternative” movement. Arguably, the prospect of such generous geographies is fundamental to ideas about the right to the city, an entitlement embracing responsibilities to one another. Nevertheless, given the ongoing dominance of automobility and widespread anxieties about skating, the tendency has been to try and contain it in parks and regulate its presence on streets, not least by creating design solutions to render it difficult to engage in. A corollary of these strategies, in combination with skaters’ own resolve to claim rights to the city, is that skaters move on to roadways. These armatures have not been designed generously to accommodate forms of mobility apart from motor vehicles—and sometimes pedestrians and cyclists. Consequently, skaters are among the millions who die on the roads annually. In relative terms, the number is minute; nevertheless, each death invokes this question: How can we mobilize a spatial politics of street skating by thinking about the geographies of generosity in ways that might avoid such events? Reflecting on that question is the purpose of this article.
Although the meaning and usefulness of Erving Goffman’s work are still being debated today, few would doubt the importance of his contributions to the sociological study of the self, emotions, deviance, and social interaction. Less well known to most contemporary sociologists is his effort to provide a sociological account of voluntary risk taking—participation in gambling, high-risk sports, dangerous occupations, certain forms of criminal behavior, and the like—activities he classified as ‘action’. While Goffman’s study of action anticipated the expansion of volitional risk taking in Western societies in recent decades, most contemporary research on this trend has been guided by a different concept—the notion of ‘edgework’. Contrasting the action and edgework approaches along three key parameters—fateful action versus corporeal edges, embodied semiotics versus embodied experience, and dramaturgical reflexivity versus hermeneutic reflexivity—reveals how the action and edgework concepts capture conflicting motivations for voluntary risk taking. Finally, this article considers how Goffman’s action framework can be reoriented to contemporary social conditions and integrated with the edgework perspective to yield a multidimensional theory of risk agency in late modern society.
The concept of smart city is getting more and more relevant for both academics and policy makers. Despite this, there is still confusion about what a smart city is, as several similar terms are often used interchangeably. This paper aims at clarifying the meaning of the word “smart” in the context of cities through an approach based on an in-depth literature review of relevant studies as well as official documents of international institutions. It also identifies the main dimensions and elements characterizing a smart city. The different metrics of urban smartness are reviewed to show the need for a shared definition of what constitutes a smart city, which are its features, and how it performs in comparison to traditional cities. Furthermore, performance measures and initiatives in a few smart cities are identified.
The aim of this paper is to analyse, from the semiotic perspective, modes of the construction of a country as a tourist destination – in the case of Croatia. From the semiotic perspective tourism – in societies that recognize it as a specific activity – can be roughly determined as a practice opposite to everyday life, which in its content, among others, includes aspects of a journey, travel, non-utility, entertainment and relaxation. To be a tourist and to practice tourism implicates dislocation, transfer from the place of residence to another place. This “another place” here is constructed and represented to the potential tourists as a “tourist destination”. The aim of this paper is to specify the contents of tourist travels and their targets, or, semiotically speaking, their valorizations: the principal starting point is the typology of valorizations elaborated by J-M. Floch (e.g. Floch, 1997a; Floch, 1997b; Volli, 2005). Some place becomes a tourist destination when it becomes semiotically valorized, when a certain value has been ascribed to it, and when this value – by different modes of expression (catalogues, brochures, web sites, advertisements and other promotional materials) – is represented to the potential travellers-tourists. The analysis has been thematically narrowed on the field of Croatian cultural heritage (history, art, architecture, monuments etc.), and the corpus for the analysis contains brochures published by the Croatian National Tourist Board in 2007. The analysis examines semiotic strategies and modes of ascribing values and meanings to places represented in catalogues as historical and cultural destinations, both by verbal and visual modes, and identify types of used valorizations and characteristics of semiotic valorizations of a place as a tourist target.
On the Move presents a rich history of one of the key concepts of modern life: mobility. Increasing mobility has been a constant throughout the modern era, evident in mass car ownership, plane travel, and the rise of the Internet. Typically, people have equated increasing mobility with increasing freedom. However, as Cresswell shows, while mobility has certainly increased in modern times, attempts to control and restrict mobility are just as characteristic of modernity. Through a series of fascinating historical episodes Cresswell shows how mobility and its regulation have been central to the experience of modernity.
In addition to his historical works, and his biographies, as his life was drawing to a close, Huizinga spent his time studying general cultural theories. Huizinga saw the instinct for play as a central element in human culture: 'In myth and ritual the great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin: law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play.' In Homo Ludens Huizinga attempts to show the impact of play on almost every aspect of culture, in other words how culture is shaped by play. The importance of this endeavor is that it identifies play as an independent phenomenon. Play for Huizinga has its own organizational forces, its own purposes and its own space.
This article examines the intersection of alternative sport practices and spatial regulation ideologies in urban environments through an analysis of skateboarding terrains. It forwards skateboard spaces as contradictory sites for both practicing and contesting urban governance. These urban spaces span the gamut from do-it-yourself struggles for public space to public—private partnerships and corporate brand-building theme parks. Skatespots, skateparks, and skateplazas conform locations of exhilarating desire that frame skateboarding within a landscape of social control. The article surveys the found and purpose-built sites to demonstrate the political potential of skateboarding within variations on the themes of accommodation and resistance to spatial regulation.
This paper uses regression techniques to take a second look at a classic risk-perception data set originally collected by Paul Slovic, Sarah Lichtenstein, and Baruch Fischhoff. As discussed in earlier studies, the attributes expected mortality, effects on future generations, immediacy, and catastrophic potential all significantly affect risk ratings. However, the authors find that perceived risk and dread show different regression patterns; most importantly, only perceived risk ratings correlate with expected mortality. In addition, average risk ratings are found to be significantly affected by perceived individual benefits, which suggests that perceptions of risk are net rather than gross indicators of harm. 14 refs., 3 tabs.
Young people make a significant contribution to the economic and social vitality of city centres in the UK, yet others often frown upon their presence and activities. Skateboarders are a particular group of young people who make use of the urban fabric for their own activities. Why they use particular locations within a city centre is the question underlying the research reported in this paper. Following a series of small focus group discussions in three metropolitan cities in the UK the conclusion is drawn that the spaces young people choose to use afford opportunities for skateboarders because of their accessibility, sociability and compatibility, and the opportunities they offer for tricks.
This paper describes some of the ways in which popular culture may be a site of social resistance. The subculture of skateboarding is described as one form of popular culture that resists capitalist social relations, and the skateboarders’ particularly overt resistance to an amateur contest provides a framework for characterizing their daily and more covert behaviors of resistance. Although social resistance has the potential to change dominant social relations, it is often limited by contradictions and accommodations. In this case, the skateboarders’ sexist behavior is one of their significant contradictions. Finally, some implications of social resistance are addressed.
This article provides a historical overview of the development of urban, location-based, and hybrid-reality mobile games. It investigates the extent to which urban spaces have been used as playful spaces prior to the advent of mobile technologies to show how the concept of play has been enacted in urban spaces through three historical tropes of urbanity: first, the transformation of Baudelaire’s flâneur into what Robert Luke (2006) calls the “phoneur”; second, the idea of dérive as used by situationist Guy Débord; and last, the wall subculture called parkour. The authors present a classification of the major types of mobile games to date, addressing how they reenact this older meaning of play apparent within these former tropes of urbanity. With this approach, they hope to address two weaknesses in the current scholarship—namely, differentiating among a range of types of games mediated by mobile technologies and assessing the important effects of playful activities.
Sidewalks have become important to diverse planning concerns that range from walking for health and transportation to economic development, recreation and environment improvement. Given their multiple roles in rapidly changing cities, this paper asks 'how should we plan sidewalks?' We contend that planners can create better cities for more people by reconsidering three facets of sidewalk planning: sidewalks as infrastructure, sidewalks as spaces of everyday life, and sidewalks as leisure destinations. The objective is to build quality infrastructure and more adaptable spaces throughout the city
In Taiwan, the government considers the zero-emission scooters to be a sustainable form of transport like walking, cycling and public transport, which play a vital role to support sustainable urban mobility. Therefore, the development of zero-emission scooters is an important strategy in constructing the sustainable transport network of Taiwan. It is also the government's priorities about the policy of emission-reduction and energy-conservation in the transportation sector. Recently, Taiwan launched a new program for subsidy of purchasing zero-emission scooters, which aimed to shift the petroleum-powered scooters to the electric scooters. The present paper is providing an update review of the promotional programs in developing zero-emission scooters in Taiwan. It introduces the status of the establishment and progress of policy, standards, subsidies to users and manufacturers, practice infrastructure, and technology development. Moreover, the contribution of replacing petrol scooters by zero-emission scooters such as battery-powered electric scooters and fuel cell scooters to reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and improvement in energy efficiency is evaluated.
One of the main aims of game studies is to investigate to what extent and in what ways computer games are currently transforming the understanding of and the actual construction of personal and cultural identities. Computer games and other digital technologies such as mobile phones and the Internet seem to stimulate playful goals and to facilitate the construction of playful identities. This transformation advances the ludification of today's culture in the spirit of Johan Huizinga's homo ludens.
Book description: This international and illustrated work challenges current writings focussing on the problems of urban public space to present a more nuanced and dialectical conception of urban life.
Detailed and extensive international urban case studies show how urban open spaces are used for play, which is defined and discussed using Caillois' four-part definition – competition, chance, simulation and vertigo. Stevens explores and analyses these case studies according to locations where play has been observed: paths, intersections, thresholds, boundaries and props.
Applicable to a wide-range of countries and city forms, The Ludic City is a fascinating and stimulating read for all who are involved or interested in the design of urban spaces.