The political economy of mobility justice. Experiences from Germany

Recently, there has been an intense debate around the concept of mobility justice, which has been developed from approaches in political theory in articulation with social struggles. In this paper, I argue that a political–economic foundation of the concept is helpful to determine the constitutive meaning of inequality within the framework of capitalist societies and, based on this, to elicit the possibilities and limits of implementing the concept in practice. The analysis focuses on the debate concerning the ongoing sustainable transformation of transportation and mobility (the Verkehrswende) in Germany. I contend that issues of justice are fundamental to such a transition and, in practice, are implicitly negotiated; nevertheless, at present, narrow interpretations of the Verkehrswende (as shaped and constrained by dominant political and economic actors) effectively marginalise considerations of mobility justice. Aspects of justice (climate justice, just transition) that are compatible with straightforward automotive electrification are taken up, whereas aspects that go beyond this, such as resource justice or questions of access to mobility, remain marginalised.