Project cooperation on 15mC topic 3 available: Urban mobility transformation in times of ruthless culture wars.

Facts and goal-oriented discourse are under attack from deliberately destructive political actors on the right. Rather than striving for compromise based on facts, they control the narrative - and thus the discourse - with identity politics and culture war. In an environment where climate change mandates a rapid and sustainable mobility transformation, toxic behaviour needs to be called out or otherwise meaningful progress becomes impossible.

Together with a small team of communication and social science experts from Leipzig university, I propose to work with the mobility unit of Leipzigs city council to test and adapt novel communication strategies to restore their agency as well as their motivation. In essence, it is a supervised training program against external intimidation and fear-mongering. In addition, the physical and social science basis is provided in support of the necessary transformation.