The Mobile Lives Forum is an independent institute created in 2011 to foster critical research and debate about mobility futures. In collaboration with research centres worldwide we produce original research, organize thought-provoking events and pioneer new ways of knowing and debating based on the collaboration between the arts, the social sciences and transportation studies and practitioners.

Aware of the challenges posed by the current economic, energy and environmental crises, the Mobile Lives Forum expands debate on the transition to alternative mobility systems by encouraging critical viewpoints on mobility and the ‘good life’: Is a mobile life a ‘good life’? Could new combinations of physical travel and telecommunications enhance human flourishing and facilitate a transition to low-carbon mobilities? What are the different and contested mobility futures involved in diverse notions of the ‘good life’?

In addressing these questions we are driven by the ‘mobilities turn’ in the social sciences and especially its concern with social futures. The possibility to imagine social futures can disturb established ways of thought and practice and prompt alternative worldviews. The Mobile Lives Forum is opening up new spaces to imagine mobility futures by bringing together a transnational collective of artists, scholars, mobility researchers and transportation practitioners.

The Mobile Lives Forum has been created by the state-owned SNCF (French railways). From its location in the heart of Paris, the institute links with communities of scholars, practitioners, artists and activists across the world and is concerned with mobile lives and mobility systems in all continents, including emerging powers and nations in the Global South.

Interactive Website

The Mobile Lives Forum interactive website (in English and French) is addressed to students, scholars, artists and practitioners seeking to be updated with and participate in debates about mobility worldwide.

With your help, the website will become a dynamic space for learning and exchange on mobility. By creating your account, you can comment on the videos, audio reports and texts posted every week by members of the international mobility community. These include current theoretical and practical debates, news commentaries and works of art. You can also take part in writing entries for the mobility lexicon, submit issues for discussion and participate in virtual workshops. In the website you can find out about the Forum’s art and science projects and much more.

To contact the Forum with your suggestions, observations and questions, go to [log in to unmask]

We hope you enjoy browsing and taking part in our website!

The Mobile Lives Forum®