“All transport problems are essentially mathematical”: The uneven resonance of academic transport and mobility knowledge in Brussels

This paper presents an inquiry into the capacity of transport and mobility studies to critically engage with contemporary policies. Drawing on the conceptualization of circuits of knowledge, the paper scrutinizes the extent to which transport policy agendas are framed around various approaches within academia. An extensive literature review reveals that the academic field of transport and mobility is organized around a hegemonic core of “neoclassical” and “sustainable” approaches. Meanwhile, a critique of these domi- nant approaches is emerging in an attempt to (re)embed mobility issues in urban political economy. This threefold knowledge typology visibly resonates within transport policy agendas in Brussels, where we detect a growth-oriented and largely depoliticized dual hege- mony of neoclassical and sustainable narratives, with critical aca- demic voices rarely entering official agendas. The paper concludes with a reflection on the difficulties, yet also the need to mobilize critical academic knowledge in the field of transport and mobility.

Keywords:transport policy, sustainable transport, urban political economy, critical urban theory, sociology of knowledge, circuits of knowledge

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