Description
This article examines two case studies of bicycle-based initiatives that offer environmental benefits: Munich’s Radlhauptstadt (“bicycle capital”) campaign and Berlin’s gig-based bicycle delivery industry. While both can be understood as forms of climate action, the article shows how they fall short of promoting the systemic transformations necessary for truly sustainable and equitable mobility. Drawing on scholarship in mobility justice and infrastructure studies, the authors argue that both examples can be understood as “greenwishing,” which leverages minor environmental benefits for public relations purposes. The study further shows that grassroots activism and governmental action together can work synergistically to drive beyond greenwishing to systemic change that benefits all participants in urban landscapes featuring complete streets and infrastructure as practice and process.
About the Speakers
Jennifer Ruth Hosek is Professor of Transnational German Studies in Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and affiliated with Film, Gender, and Cultural Studies at Queen's University, Ontario. Her project in process "Occupying Motion: Visual Culture and Community in Market Times" includes the documentaries Rodando en La Habana: bicycle stories and Dabbawala Berlin: delivery stories. Books include Sun, Sex, and Socialism: Cuba in the German Imaginary and the anthologies Cultural Topographies of the New Berlin with Karin Bauer and Christa Wolf A Companion with Sonja Klocke.
Seth Peabody’s research explores diverse aspects of German language, literature, film, and society, all informed by interdisciplinary Environmental Humanities approaches. His publications include the monograph Film History for the Anthropocene: The Ecological Archive of German Cinema and a range of articles and book chapters on German literature and film, global mountain cinema, sustainability education, and critical language pedagogy. He is Vice President of AATG Minnesota, co-founder of the EDGES (Engaged Digital German Environmental Studies) Working Group, and a member of the Society of Fellows at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich.
About the German Studies Seminar Series
The Newberry Library German Studies Seminar series provides a forum for scholarship-in-progress in the area of German studies. The seminar is particularly interested in papers that cross disciplinary boundaries and that reconceptualize the materials and conventions of German Studies as a field, including beyond the frames of the German language and nation state. Like all Newberry Scholarly Seminars, meetings are conversational and free and open to faculty, graduate students, and members of the public, who register in advance to request papers.
Register and Request Paper
This event is free, but all participants must register in advance. Space is limited, so please do not request a paper unless you plan to attend.
Register and Request Paper