2nd Mobility Workshop in a series for pilot research of Annika Lundkvist at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization in Warsaw
Held on December 17th, 2022 at 14.30 in the Ukraina Room, at Centrum Wielokultorowe (Multicultural Center) in Praga
This pilot workshop was for a small & cozy group of participants, including my supervisor. It was her first time seeing my full workshop presentation and line-up of activities.
At the end, I asked her what she thought. She loved it. With the word association (for different forms of mobility) activity, she noted, beaming, “THIS is #mentalmapping.” This led to us discussing ideas for later mapping the workshops, connecting the words to sites and more.
Also, I find it incredible and quite serendipitous that as it turns out my supervisor is a linguist. Language is a very important dimension of this project as I am hosting these workshops in English. Ewa, my supervisor, was able to translate on the spot at this workshop from Polish to English as well as communicate with a Ukrainian participant.
Simultaneously in the same room we were in at the center (the Ukraina room), a group of Ukrainian women & children were busy at two tables filled with Christmas decorations. We were able to give them several printouts of the Ukrainian version of my survey to fill out.
This session truly worked perfectly as a pilot as well, testing this space out and allowing my supervisor to have the full experience of the workshop.
Two more pilot workshops next month and then we will go full-on in the Spring with a new line-up of workshops and promote them widely!
I dub these workshops ‘Urban Mobility Thought Labs’ as what we are exploring is not just people’s mobility habits but also perceptions of different modes.
These experiences are part of my pilot research as I:
- test out various spaces across the city for future workshops
- test out the concept for civic engagement
- test out the concept for my data collection
- test out the concept for survey distribution
- test out the overall structure of the workshop experience
Following this, we will have two more pilot workshops in January, work on improving and launch a new series of workshops in Spring 2023.
If you are interested in participating in one of these workshops, or hosting me at your business, organization, class (university/adult learners) club or other group to experience these workshops, please check out the workshop information page: https://pedestrianspace.org/workshops-warsaw/
-Annika Lundkvist, Warsaw
