Dear Colleagues

Apologies for cross-posting. We are inviting contributions for a Special
Issue of the journal Transport Policy:
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/transport-policy/call-for-papers/special-issue-household-transport-costs-economic-stress/


Special Issue Title: "Household transport costs, economic stress and
vulnerability, at the interface between mobility, domestic energy and
residential location"

Guest editors:

Dr. Giulio Mattioli, [log in to unmask], University of Leeds, UK
Dr. Jean-Pierre Nicolas, [log in to unmask], University of Lyon,
France
Prof. Carsten Gertz, [log in to unmask], Hamburg University of Technology,
Germany

Deadline for Abstracts: October 1, 2015
Deadline for Full Papers: January 31, 2016
Publication of the Special Issue: 2017

Information

Over the last two decades carbon reduction policies, rapidly fluctuating
oil prices and stagnating real incomes have drawn increasing attention to
questions of affordability in the transport and the domestic energy sector
in Europe. At the same time, housing affordability is of increasing concern
in several countries. Questions of costs and affordability in the transport
sector are generally considered separately from similar issues in the
housing and domestic energy sector, as they are the remit of different
policy sectors and research literatures. There are however several reasons
why they should be considered in conjunction. It has long been assumed that
households, trade off housing and transport expenditure against each other
in decisions about residential location, even though empirical evidence is
mixed. The results of these decisions have important consequences on urban
development trends. Also, households may cope with economic stress in one
area by curtailing spending in another (spill over effects). Finally,
transport and domestic energy spending are exposed to similar processes -
e.g. fluctuating global energy prices, energy transition, environmental
taxes, etc. – which raise important equity and justice concerns. On the
other hand, energy use in the domestic and transport sector are
conceptually different in many respects, challenging holistic concepts of
‘energy justice’.

Although much transport and social exclusion research to date has focused
on low mobility and/or carless individuals, there is increasing recognition
that the costs of daily mobility, notably by car, can have important
economic stress impacts. Different terms are used in the literature to
indicate affordability problems arising from transport costs, including
‘forced car ownership’; ‘transport poverty’; ‘oil vulnerability’ and
‘energy precarity’. The interrelationships between transport poverty and
economic stress in other sectors have remained under-researched, although
this varies between countries. While the notion of fuel poverty is well
established in the UK, it is narrowly focused on domestic energy. This
contrasts with the experience of countries like France, where the idea of
‘energy precarity' is increasingly applied to both home and transport
energy use, through the notion of residential cost. This has led to
innovative approaches in research and policy-making. Similarly, in
countries like Germany, rising transport costs have been framed as an
opportunity to steer spatial planning and residential location choices
towards the 'compact city', in accordance with sustainability and
resilience principles. As a whole, the body of knowledge on transport and
energy-related economic stress in Europe is substantial and diverse,
although fragmented by language barriers.

Scope of the Special Issue

The need for a special issue to bring these issues together emerged from an
International Workshop “Energy-related economic stress at the interface
between transport poverty, fuel poverty and residential location” held at
the University of Leeds on May 20-21 2015 (https://goo.gl/dyYTrL). The
special issue aims to build on the above work, calling for articles on
household transport costs, and their relationship with spending on housing
and domestic energy, with a clear focus on lessons for policy-making at the
intersection of these sectors, as well as on international comparisons and
cross-fertilisation. It welcomes original research articles and literature
reviews focused on:

   - Conceptualisations of transport poverty, vulnerability and equity
   - Insights into the drivers of economic and social difficulties related
   to daily mobility
   - The development of methods and metrics to investigate transport
   affordability and their influence on the framing of the problem
   - Governance experiences and policy recommendations

The special issue will mainly focus on European cases, highlighting the
diversity of situations within a relatively homogeneous context in terms of
urban form and economic development. Nevertheless studies from non-European
countries are welcome to broaden the perspective.

Submission method

Full paper submission without an abstract screening is not accepted for the
special issue. The abstracts must be submitted, as a MS Word attachment,
directly to the Special Issue Guest Editors ([log in to unmask];
[log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]) by October 1 2015. Upon
acceptance of the abstract, please submit the full length article via the
Transport Policy online submission system (http://ees.elsevier.com/jtrp/).
Authors should indicate that the paper is being submitted for this special
issue (click “SI: Household Transport Costs” when choosing Manuscript
“Article Type”), otherwise the submission will be handled as a regular
manuscript. Manuscripts will be refereed according to the Journal’s
standard peer review process. Acceptance for publication is based on
referees’ recommendations. Professional editing service is highly
recommended before full-paper submission. Papers will be rejected because
of poor English. For author guidelines, please visit the website of the
Journal (http://www.journals.elsevier.com/transport-policy/).


Important Dates

Abstract submission to guest editors: October 1, 2015

Abstract acceptance notice: October 31, 2015

Submission website opens: November 1, 2015

Submission of full paper due: January 31, 2016

Feedback from first-round review: April 30, 2016

Revised paper submission: June 30, 2016

Feedback from second-round review (if indicated): August 31, 2016

Final manuscripts due: September 30, 2016

Final manuscript submissions to publisher: November 30, 2016

Planned publication: 2017


Inquiries

All inquiries regarding this call for papers should be directed to Guest
Editors

Dr. Giulio Mattioli ([log in to unmask])

Dr. Jean-Pierre Nicolas ([log in to unmask])

Prof. Carsten Gertz ([log in to unmask])



*Dr Giulio Mattioli. Institute for Transport Studies, Faculty of
Environment, University of Leeds* [Room 214, 34-40 University Road, Leeds,
LS2 9JT]. Office Tel:+44 (0)113 34 3289. Mobile: +44 (0)7920 386046. Email:
[log in to unmask] [log in to unmask] . Website:
http://www.its.leeds.ac.uk/people/g.mattioli *DEMAND Research Centre*:
http://www.demand.ac.uk/.

*(t)ERES project: *https://teresproject.wordpress.com/* Twitter: *
@TranspPoverty