Smart Mobility and Policy Instruments: Broadened Definitions and Critical Understandings

Abstract

The point of departure of this book is that smart mobility will only be developed in a desired direction and fulfil societal objectives if it is steered in that direction. The market, left to itself, will most certainly not deliver on these objectives. This message has been conveyed extensively in recent literature, but this book aims to take this discussion one step further by focussing on what governance of smart mobility looks like today and in the future. In this introductory chapter, the authors provide a framework of different understandings of policy instruments, how they are selected, developed and used. After the array of policy instruments within the transport sector has been extensively discussed, the authors turn to discussing a broader understanding of policy instruments found within political science and political sociology. In doing so, this book contributes to the critical scholarship on policy instruments, while exploring the why, the how and the what of policy instruments in relation to smart mobility. The chapter closes with a brief introduction to the structure of the book as well as a description of the content of each chapter.

Citation

Paulsson, A. and Sørensen, C.H. (2020), "Smart Mobility and Policy Instruments: Broadened Definitions and Critical Understandings", Paulsson, A. and Sørensen, C.H. (Ed.) Shaping Smart Mobility Futures: Governance and Policy Instruments in times of Sustainability Transitions, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83982-650-420201001