Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Sustainable Mobility

CIVIS focus area: Cities, territories and mobilities
Open to: Master's

Phd
Field of studies: Social Science and humanities

Environmental sciences, Urbanism, Geography

Other
Type: Asynchronous course
Course dates: 6 October 2025 - 30 January 2026
Apply by: 15 juillet 2025 Apply now

How can we move people and goods in ways that are fair, efficient, and environmentally sound? This course explores sustainable mobility through the lens of multiple disciplines, equipping students to tackle one of the most pressing challenges of our time.

Sustainable mobility, from an interdisciplinary perspective, encompasses mobility that minimizes environmental impact, ensures social equity and accessibility, maintains economic viability, incorporates innovative approaches, integrates urban planning and land use considerations, promotes behavioural change towards greener options, and is supported by effective policies and governance structures.

Mobility is fundamental to economic prosperity and participation in society. It is, therefore, crucial to design and provide a mobility system that meets prevailing needs while minimizing negative impacts. Along with providing an infrastructure that encourages sustainable mobility, habits, norms, and lifestyles at a personal level, as well as societal and cultural trends, must also be considered. To achieve the necessary mobility transition towards a sustainable system, it is essential to promote interdisciplinary approaches in research, policy, and implementation practice.

This course offers a holistic comprehension of sustainable mobility through a framework that integrates methodological expertise, diverse disciplinary theories, and research approaches/ results, addressing contemporary challenges and fostering further development in the context of sustainable mobility. Additionally, the course recognizes the importance of incorporating migration and gender perspectives in sustainable mobility studies.

Migration patterns significantly influence mobility demands and infrastructure needs, while gender considerations ensure equitable access and safety for all individuals. Thus, by incorporating a ‘mobilities paradigm’ into sustainable mobility, the course aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequality), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).

This course emphasizes methodological diversity, utilizing both qualitative and quantitative perspectives to analyse and address mobility issues. Through case studies, data analysis, fieldwork, and participatory research, students will engage in comprehensive learning experiences that reflect the complexity of real-world sustainable mobility challenges.

Main topics addressed

Sustainability paradigm and interdisciplinarity
Epistemological approaches to sustainable mobility
Methods for researching sustainable mobility
Mobility and migration from a sociological perspective
Geospatial approaches to sustainable mobility
Tourism and sustainability
Gender and Sustainable Mobility

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

explain the role of mobility in achieving sustainability goals using both qualitative and quantitative evidence;
apply interdisciplinary methods – interconnected to their respective field of study – to analyse multifaceted sustainable mobility challenges;
design conceptual and practical solutions for sustainable mobility transitions, integrating knowledge from diverse fields.

Dates: 6 October 2025 – 30 January 2026	Total workload: 175 hours
Format: online, asynchronous	ECTS: 6*
Location:	Language: English (B2)
Contact: martin.loidl@plus.ac.at and dzeneta.karabegovic@plus.ac.at

^{*recognition of ECTS depends on your home university}

Asynchronous mode

This CIVIS course is an Asynchronous course - online structured learning activities, in asynchronous formats, encompassing theoretical and practical components. They can be disciplinary, inter-/transdisciplinary, or focussed on transversal skills and competences. These courses are newly designed by CIVIS universities and are accessible to all eligible CIVIS students who meet the prerequisite requirements. Courses can be part of the existing educational curricula, or standalone, extra-curricular offers. The evaluation is adapted to the specific context, e.g. project-based evaluation, e-assessment, questionnaire.

The course is entirely hosted on CIVIS Moodle and consists of three stages:

during the first eight weeks, distinguished experts from various fields provide inputs in the form of recorded lectures and conversations, reading materials and examples from research and application followed by interactive group discussions;
in the following five weeks, students will work on their own projects with weekly consulting sessions and a round of peer review. Project topics will be introduced by the course instructors or students bring their own topic for the project;
in the last two weeks, students will present results from their projects, discuss the presentations by their peers and reflect on the research and promotion of sustainable mobility.

Students will work through the materials that are made available on a weekly basis in a self-paced mode. Instructors and peers are available for contributing to and moderating the discussion forum.

Assessment

The final grade will be based on:

participation (active participation in discussion forums on course platform): 20%;
expose and research plan of research paper (max 3 pages): 15%;
peer review of colleagues’ work (max 2 pages): 15%;
final paper: 40%;
final presentation: 10%.

This course is open to Master's and PhD students at CIVIS member universities who demonstrate a domain background or strong interest in a field that is relevant to sustainable mobility: geography, sociology, environmental sciences, planning, transport engineering, behavioural psychology, etc.

Curiosity and a propensity for interdisciplinary co-operation are the most important prerequisites. In addition, students must have sound methodological expertise from their own domain (quantitative, qualitative) and experience in academic work.

All materials and communication are in English (B2 level required). While a formal certificate is not mandatory, students should be comfortable reading, writing, and discussing academic content in English. Some consultations may be available in German, Spanish, or French, depending on the involved lecturers.

NB: Visiting Students - Erasmus Funding Eligibility

To be eligible for your selected CIVIS programme, you must be a fully enrolled student at your CIVIS home university at the time you will be undertaking the programme. Applications for this course are only available for the 11 CIVIS member universities in Europe.

Partner universities

University of Salzburg (Austria)
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain)
Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
Université Hassan II de Casablanca (Morocco)

Professors:

Dzeneta Karabegovic, University of Salzburg
Martin Loidl, University of Salzburg
Carmen Hidalgo-Giralt, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Claire Pelgrims, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Fadma Ait Mous, Université Hassan II de Casablanca

Send your application by filling in the online application form by 15 July 2025 and including:

short CV (preferably Europass);
motivation letter (max. 300 words).

Applications will be evaluated also based on:

domain background (we aim for a wide variety of disciplines);
method skill level;
experience in academic work;
relevance of the course for individual study and career plan;
level of English.

The letters of admission will be sent out by 31 August 2025.

Apply now

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