Publications by Vincent Kaufmann

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The analyses of urban environments, norms, micro-census and scientific studies reveal a variety of myths about pedestrians. One of them is the dominant representation of the pedestrian: A single person, usually with healthy body and in leisure mode. Pedestrians seem to be considered like cars, with fixed masses, limits and manoeuvrings. After qualitatif observation of more than 9’000 urban pedestrians, we propose more nuanced typologies which better reflect their different realities. A first typology refers

The aim of this research is to analyse the controversy surrounding the conceptual links between mobility and time. In recent years, new aspects of mobility have been highlighted, especially its relationship with transport time: this time, which is often perceived as wasted and unproductive by transport engineers and decision-makers (instrumental rationality), whereas it can be seen as productive or relaxing if it is comfortable (Kaufmann, 2002; Lyons et al, 2005; 2016). In 1970, Hägerstand advocated for dec

Action-oriented, transformative, and transdisciplinary approaches are increasingly heralded as promising tools that enable researchers not only to produce new knowledge about a situation, but also to actively engage in tackling it; however, such approaches ...

An exploration of how to navigate the demands of modern life through the lens of rhythm. We live in a world increasingly saturated – with signs, norms, objects, and demands – and that overstimulation contributes to our daily sense of alienation. In this manifesto, the authors argue that the path to emancipation lies in our capacity to reclaim political agency over our rhythms, both individual and collective. A Manifesto for a Rhythm Politics explores the fundamentally spatial and territorial dimensions of

In the face of the depletion of oil reserves in the near future, the considerable damages wrought by the automobile assemblage to urban life, and the threat of global warming, it is crucial to imagine a future without the car in order to preserve the quality of urban life and to ensure sustainable mobility in general. Regarding the negative impacts of car usage, we identified three basic attitudes of (non-) preparation for the future, based on a review of the literature and interviews with urban design and

A main challenge facing the city of the future is that of social cohesion between the poor and the rich, generations, genders and lifestyles. In addition to issues of professional opportunities and access to resources in general (housing, shops, services, nature), spatial cohesion is also a key factor that urban sociology can help remedy by proposing new policy, tools, and concepts. In this article, we approach these issues based on the concepts of differences and commons with regard to life rhythms. The s

Promoting physical activity and active transport strategies are among the “best buys” for tackling the risk factors of noncommunicable diseases (WHO Global status report on noncommunicable diseases, 2010). Operationalising such insights requires policies favourable to health in the transport sector. In Switzerland and many other countries, the transport sector has its own agenda which includes increasing walking, cycling and public transport patronage, and reducing car use – or at least limiting it to areas

Every year, the Health Bus (Bus Santé) enables a representative sample of around 1000 members of the non-institutionalised adult population of Geneva, Switzerland, to undergo a health evaluation including physical measurements, blood tests and questionnair ...

Commuting and travelling extensively for job reasons both helps and challenges people to balance competing demands of work and personal life. People do not have equal resources and possibilities to benefit from high mobility. Globalisation, labour flexibility and insecurity, transport and telecommunications systems have led to more complex, more personalised and more fluctuating mobile living arrangements. Moreover, work-related travel has not only to do with occupations and careers, but must be understood

The design of policies and interventions aiming at the reduction of energy consumption requires a good understanding of the underlying social logics. In this perspective, this paper focuses on how the distribution of daily activities at home and away, in various locations, result into different levels of energy consumption in buildings and transportation. This analysis is based on an ad hoc survey of 2000 French households in late 2013. The questionnaire was focused on daily activities, mobility and energy

This paper aims to investigate the combination of exogenous and dynamic endogenous variables in professional high mobility patterns. It is based on a panel dataset of the Job Mobilities and Family Lives in Europe research project conducted between 2007 and ...

Among heterosexual couples, employment of the female partner may suffer from household migration often driven by the job of the male partner. Most research has traditionally focused on the distance moved after couple formation and has neglected how far par ...

Representations of the pedestrian as a sole and healthy individual do not correspond to the reality and diversity of walking practices. The majority of urban pedestrians has to deal with constraints to their degrees of freedom in walking. We propose a typology of constraints, define and describe the “augmented pedestrian” and his “multi-task walk”. A qualitative study undertaken in Swiss urban districts aims to understand pedestrians in the complexity of their daily lives. The responsibilities assumed by in

Lifestyles of individuals in high-income countries account for a substantial share of global consumptionbased CO₂ emissions. However, most lifestyle studies provide limited guidance for identifying which individuals drive emissions and through which lifestyle domains at the subnational level. This study proposes a methodological framework to translate quantitative analysis of lifestyle-related CO₂ emissions into actionable tools for the co-creation of context-sensitive climate interventions. Using survey da

The urgency of climate change is such that public policies need to be radically reoriented. Clean technologies and digital optimization will go some way toward achieving this. But if we are to achieve the targets set by COP21 as part of the 2015 Paris Agreement, we will also have to engage in a major transformation of our lifestyles. This concerns all spheres of activity, in particular mobility (including the questions of teleworking, business travel, etc.), housing and its energy consumption, household con

Promoting public transport accessibility, which refers to the mobility potential arising from the ease of reaching opportunities, is often employed by public authorities as a planning tool to encourage a modal shift toward alternative modes of transport (Banister, 2008; Curtis and Scheurer, 2010). The 15-minute city illustrates a recent policy initiative to enhance accessibility to basic services and amenities locally via walking, biking, or public transport (Moreno et al., 2021). However, accessibility stu

This paper describes the Data Domotopia a 2300 + respondent self-administered webbased survey. It includes 100 + multi-purpose items about home-making and stillness in a moving world. We suppose that home-making can reveal coping strategies and resilience ...

From the point of view of public health and the environment, it can be argued that people who spontaneously walk great distances display a desirable behaviour, whereas those who drive a car without any walking in public space do not. A suggested metric can describe the relationship between these two behaviours within a conurbation, with a view to informing public policy. The Swiss transport and mobility micro-survey is based on a representative sample of the general population, who were asked about their mo

We present results from a recent experiment conducted in Switzerland that studies the effects of a temporary change in the mode of travel to work on travel happiness and mode switching. The primary aim is to study the dynamics in travel satisfaction rating ...

Vincent Kaufmann

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Pedestrian typologies - nuanced considerations of urban walking

Revisiting the controversy surrounding the status of travel time in mobility: theoretical work as a basis for future empirical work

Explore, engage, empower: methodological insights into a transformative mixed methods study tackling the COVID-19 lockdown

A Manifesto for a Rhythm Politics

Towards a Post-Car World. How (Not) to Experience the Future of Car Mobility

Differences, commons and rhythms: Towards an urbanism of temporalities

Positive association of walking with the use of public transport in Switzerland

Associations between Daily Walking and Subclinical Health Markers in a Swiss City

High mobility over the life course: evidence from a longitudinal study in Europe

Spatial location of activities and energy consumption of households in France

Spatial location of activities and energy consumption of households in France

Professional cyclic high mobility: modelling state transitions

Migration distance from birthplace and its association with relative income and employment share among heterosexual couples in Switzerland

Pedestrian typologies - a sociological look on urban walkways

Making carbon-intensive lifestyles tangible through data-driven personas

The Lemanic Panel, a five-year monitoring of populations' lifestyles-focus on the first wave: recruitment phase, mobility survey and GPS tracking

Mobility potential: towards an accessibility indicator accounting for the individual ability to move through motility

Data Domotopia: introduction to the quantitative survey

Big walkers over non-walking drivers: a walking-related metric for evaluating the success of transportation and public health policies

Happiness and Travel Mode Switching: Findings from a Swiss Public Transportation Experiment