Consumer Logistics
Understanding mundane use of container technologies for mobility in consumption and its relevance for sustainable European Cities
Shopping is almost an omnipresent feature of urban settings generated by and generating mobility. Shopping is created by and creates logistics - i.e. the process of displacing products to sites of consumption. Logistics have studied the cycle and mobility for products from its production phase to its disposal leaving out the mobility in consumption, i.e. corporal mobility by customers transporting their purchases from the store back home.
Container technologies used for consumption mobility in everyday life, including bags and public transport, play pivotal roles performing (un-)sustainability and (non-)people-friendliness of the European Urban Cities.
With combined efforts by Swedish, French and British scholars on consumption and mobility the project will study the performance of consumer logistics at the intersection of practices of consumption, mobility, city planning and retailing in four European inner cities.
Working in close cooperation with central stakeholders for example city management, politicians, officials, and retailers our goal is that our analysis will serve as guidelines for a more sustainable urban city life. The goal is; in close cooperation with stakeholders to contribute to the European development of sustainable good city form.
The researchers involved are from University of Toulouse II, University of Edinburgh, Lancaster University and the Scool of Business, Economics and Law at University of Gothenburg.
View short film about the project (YouTube)
The three-year project is a part of URBAN-NET