This article provides a description of the emergence of the Spanish ‘Occupy’ movement, Democracia real ya. The aim is to analyse the innovative discursive features of this movement and to connect this analysis to what we consider the innovative potential of the critical sciences. The movement is the result of a spontaneous uprising that appeared on the main squares of Madrid and Barcelona on 15 May 2011 and then spread to other Spanish cities. This date gave it its name: 15M. While the struggle for democracy in Spain is certainly not new, the 15M group shows a series of innovative features. These include the emphasis on peaceful struggle and the imaginary of a new democracy or worldview, transmitted through innovative placards and slogans designed by Spanish citizens. We consider these innovative not only due to their creativity, but also because of their use as a form of civil action. Our argument is that these placards both functioned as a sign of protest and, in combination with the demonstrations and the general dynamics of 15M, helped to reframe the population’s understanding of the crisis and rearticulate the identity of the citizens from victims to agents. In order to analyse the multimodal character of this struggle, we developed an interdisciplinary methodology, which combines socio-cognitive approaches that consider ideological proposals as socio-cognitive constructs (i.e. the notion of narrative or cognitive frame), and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in the analysis of discourses related to processes of social imagination and transformation. The socio-constructivist perspective is used to consider these discourses in relation to their actors, particular contexts and actions. The use of CDA, which included a careful rhetoric analysis, helped to analyse the process of deconstruction, transformation and reconstruction that 15M uses to maintain its struggle. The narrative analysis and the discursive theoretical concept of articulation helped to methodologically show aspects of the process of change alluded to above. This change was both in terms of cognition and in the modification of identity that turned a large part of the Spanish population from victims to indignados and to the neologism indignadanos, which is a composition of indignado and ciudadano (citizen).
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Seamless integration of air segment in the overall multimodal mobility chain is a key challenge to provide more efficient and sustainable transport services. Technology advances offer a unique opportunity to build a new generation of transport services able to match the evolving expectations and needs of society as a whole. In this context, the passenger-centric approach represents a method to inform the design of future mobility services, supporting quality of life, security and services to citizens traveling across Europe. Relying on the concepts of inclusive design, context of use and task analysis, in this article, we present a comprehensive methodological framework for the analysis of passenger characteristics to elicit features and requirements for future multimodal mobility services, including air leg, that are relevant from the perspective of passengers. The proposed methodology was applied to a series of specific use cases envisaged for three time horizons, 2025, 2035 and 2050, in the context of a European research project. Then, passenger-focused key performance indicators and related metrics were derived to be included in a validation step, with the aim of assessing the extent of benefit for passengers that can be achieved in the forecasted scenarios. The results of the study demonstrate the relevance of human variability in the design of public services, as well as the feasibility of personalized performance assessment of mobility services.
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People with a visual impairment (PVI) often experience difficulties with wayfinding. Current navigation applications have limited communication channels and do not provide detailed enough information to support PVI. By transmitting wayfinding information via multimodal channels and combining these with wearables, we can provide tailored information for wayfinding and reduce the cognitive load. This study presents a framework for multimodal wayfinding communication via smartwatch. The framework consists of four modalities: audio, voice, tactile and visual. Audio and voice messages are transmitted using a bone conduction headphone, keeping the ears free to focus on the environment. With a smartwatch vibrations are directed to a sensitive part of the body (i.e., the wrist), making it easier to sense the vibrations. Icons and short textual feedback are viewed on the display of the watch, allowing for hands-free navigation.
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Teachers have a crucial role in bringing about the extensive social changes that are needed in the building of a sustainable future. In the EduSTA project, we focus on sustainability competences of teachers. We strengthen the European dimension of teacher education via Digital Open Badges as means of performing, acknowledging, documenting, and transferring the competencies as micro-credentials. EduSTA starts by mapping the contextual possibilities and restrictions for transformative learning on sustainability and by operationalising skills. The development of competence-based learning modules and open digital badge-driven pathways will proceed hand in hand and will be realised as learning modules in the partnering Higher Education Institutes and badge applications open for all teachers in Europe.Societal Issue: Teachers’ capabilities to act as active facilitators of change in the ecological transition and to educate citizens and workforce to meet the future challenges is key to a profound transformation in the green transition.Teachers’ sustainability competences have been researched widely, but a gap remains between research and the teachers’ practise. There is a need to operationalise sustainability competences: to describe direct links with everyday tasks, such as curriculum development, pedagogical design, and assessment. This need calls for an urgent operationalisation of educators’ sustainability competences – to support the goals with sustainability actions and to transfer this understanding to their students.Benefit to society: EduSTA builds a community, “Academy of Educators for Sustainable Future”, and creates open digital badge-driven learning pathways for teachers’ sustainability competences supported by multimodal learning modules. The aim is to achieve close cooperation with training schools to actively engage in-service teachers.Our consortium is a catalyst for leading and empowering profound change in the present and for the future to educate teachers ready to meet the challenges and act as active change agents for sustainable future. Emphasizing teachers’ essential role as a part of the green transition also adds to the attractiveness of teachers’ work.
ATAL: Automated Transport and Logistics Automatisering van transportmodaliteiten is overal ter wereld gaande. Met een Duurzaam Living Lab kunnen multimodale geautomatiseerde transportoperaties verder in de praktijk duurzaam en opschaalbaar worden ontwikkeld. Hierbij worden beleidsmakers en organisaties ondersteund in deze transitie. De maatschappelijke voordelen van grootschalige uitrol van Automated Trucks en Platooning, Automated Train Operations en Autonomous Sailing zijn onder andere minder energieverbruik en emissies, betere doorstroming en betere verkeersveiligheid. De Duurzame Living Lab heeft betrekking op het haven-achterland vervoer van Rotterdam richting Duitsland en België. Het wegvervoer maakt gebruik van de TULIP-Corridor, water en spoor modaliteit volgen de MIRT goederencorridors tot in het Ruhrgebied.
De opkomst van Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is een gevolg van verschillende maatschappelijke en technologische ontwikkelingen. MaaS is het aanbod van multimodale, vraag-gestuurde mobiliteitsdiensten, waarbij op maat gemaakte reismogelijkheden via een digitaal platform (bijvoorbeeld een mobiele app) met real-time informatie aan klanten worden aangeboden, inclusief betaling en afhandeling van transacties. Meerdere regio’s en steden zijn momenteel op zoek hoe de ontwikkeling van MaaS succesvol te faciliteren. Ter ondersteuning van deze regio’s en steden ontwikkelen de HAN en Movares in dit onderzoek een “MaaS-ladder”. Deze MaaS-ladder geeft voor elke stad of regio een integraal overzicht hoe zij scoort op verschillende factoren die voor het succes van MaaS belangrijk zijn. Door middel van indicatoren wordt een sectoraal overzicht gegenereerd hoe gereed een stad of regio is en wordt inzichtelijk gemaakt welke ontwikkelingen en beleidsbeslissingen genomen kunnen worden om de implementatie van nieuwe mobiliteitsdiensten, zoals MaaS, te faciliteren. Ook kan de ambitie op de bepalende factoren worden gemeten, zodat inzichtelijk wordt in hoeverre de ambitie behaald wordt. Onderdeel van het onderzoek is een proof-of-concept door het toepassen van de MaaS-ladder in pilots samen met de gemeenten Amsterdam, Nijmegen, Apeldoorn, Den Haag en Doetinchem. Met de uitkomsten van de pilots kan de MaaS-ladder aangescherpt worden en kunnen steden en regio’s van elkaar leren door best practices uit te wisselen.
