In this article, we interrogate the utility of conceptualising the ‘first and last mile’ (FLM) as a ‘challenge’ to be addressed through automated and integrated mobility services. We critically engage with the concept through a design anthropological approach which takes two steps so as: to complicate literatures that construct the FLM as a place where automated, service-based and micro-mobility innovations will engender sustainable modal choices above individual automobility; and to demonstrate how people’s situated mobility competencies and values, shape social and material realities and future imaginaries of everyday mobilities. To do so, we draw on ethnographic research into everyday mobility practices, meanings and imaginaries in a suburban neighbourhood in Sweden. We show how locally situated mobilities both challenge the spatial and temporal underpinnings of the first and last mile concept, and resist universalist technology-driven automation narratives. We argue that instead of attempting to bridge gaps in seemingly linear journeys through automated systems, there is a need to account for the practices, tensions and desires embedded in everyday mobilities. © 2023 The Author(s).

Contemporary visions for automation of future society and everyday transportation in cities and society are based on accelerated innovations in emerging technology (Legacy et al. 2019). Whereas such anticipated social transformations are based on abstract and idealised imaginaries, they lack engagement with the everyday life, communities and environments into which they are to be implemented. In this paper, we argue that situated human approaches to the future of urban mobility in everyday contexts are urgently needed, through transdisciplinary and long-term engagement with a broad range of stakeholders and communities, in order to negotiate and align opportunities, values, and desires for sustainable social change (Fors et al. 2022, Smith 2022, Pink et al. 2022).

The paper demonstrates a design anthropological methodology for future urban mobility based on two consecutive projects involving sustained engagement with industry, municipalities, and local communities in Sweden (Smith et al. 2024; Brodersen et al. 2023, Ebbeson et al. 2024,). Grounded in two suburban areas in Sweden and involving long-term, iterative multi-stakeholder collaborations and co-design, we discuss how a transferable methodology for human futures in urban mobility can be used in diverse contexts, organisations and environments. We also present design anthropological tools for multi-stakeholder co-design developed through the project. We argue that such approaches can support the shift towards socially sustainable transformation at wider scales - hereby reimagining futures based on participatory human approaches that place the values, everyday practices, and environments of people at the centre of design.

This introductory chapter presents an overview and a synthesis of the chapters in the The De Gruyter Handbook of Automated Futures. Divided into sections on Imaginaries, Interactions, and Impact, the handbook presents a research agenda that explores futures, automation, and change from social scientific perspectives. These sections serve as heuristic sites for reframing narratives on automation, investigating human and algorithmic interactions, and exploring engaging ways for the social sciences, humanities, and design to participate in shaping automated futures. The Imaginaries section deconstructs dominant narratives of automated futures, emphasising historical antecedents and ideological tensions. Interactions delve into the complex dynamics between humans and automated systems, highlighting strategies to infuse automation with human dimensions and promote inclusivity. Impact focuses on making automated futures sustainable and ethical, advocating for innovative methodologies and interdisciplinary collaboration. Finally, this chapter offers insights into how the handbook can inspire into envisioning, understanding, and shaping automated futures in a playful and designerly manner. It encourages critical reflection, ethical engagement, and participatory approaches to ensure the development of inclusive, equitable, and sustainable automation futures. © 2024 the author(s),

The project Open and Self Organizing Mechanisms for Sustainable Mobility as a Service (OSMaaS) ran between 2020 and 2024, hosted by Halmstad University and funded by The Knowledge Foundation. The project was a collaboration between researchers from service design, design ethnography, business model innovation, and intelligent systems, and the companies Volvo Cars, WirelessCar, Polestar, and Devoteam. One of the project’s outputs is the OSMaaS Service Design Framework that integrates research from the different activities in the project into a toolkit for service designers. This booklet provides a guide for how to apply the framework. Each canvas can be used standalone or in any order, but our experience is that the framework is most powerful when following the design process presented here. The canvases can be downloaded from the OSMaaS webpage and are free to use. 

Human approaches to the future of urban mobility in everyday contexts are urgently required if we are to develop sustainable human futures in mobility. A requirement in meeting this challenge will be transdisciplinary and long-term engagement with a broad range of stakeholders and communities, in order to negotiate and align opportunities, values, and desires for social change (Fors et al., 2022). In this chapter we argue that we can address this challenge by applying participatory human approaches that place the values, everyday practices, and environments of people at the centre of design. The chapter presents the development of a participatory and design anthropological methodology for future urban mobility through a project involving sustained engagement with industry, municipalities, and local communities in Sweden. Based on two consecutive projects grounded in two contrasting suburban areas in Sweden and involving long-term, iterative multi-stakeholder collaborations, the chapter provides a transferable methodology for developing automated future mobility in diverse contexts, communities, and environments, through socially sustainable transformation. © 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

How does automation affect us, our environment, and our imaginations? What actions should we take in response to automation? Beyond grand narratives and technology-driven visions of the future, what more can automation offer?

With these questions in mind, The De Gruyter Handbook of Automated Futures provides a framework for thinking about and implementing automation differently. It consolidates automated futures as an inter- and transdisciplinary research field, embedding the imaginaries, interactions, and impacts of automation technology within their social, historical, societal, cultural, and political contexts. Promoting a critical yet constructive and engaging agenda, the handbook invites readers to collaborate with rather than resist automation agendas. It does so by pushing the agenda for social science, humanities and design beyond merely assessing and evaluating existing technologies. Instead, the handbook demonstrates how the humanities and social sciences are essential to the design and governance of sustainable sociotechnical systems. Methodologically, the handbook is underpinned by a pedagogical approach to staging co-learning and co-creation of automated futures with, rather than simply for, people. In this way, the handbook encourages readers to explore new and alternative modes of research, fostering a deeper engagement with the evolving landscape of automation.

- integrates perspectives at both philosophical and practical levels

- a guide to imaginaries and interactions with automation technology that cuts across different fields

- demonstrates how co-learning and co-creation can be staged and analysed

The design space of future mobility services is considered a wicked problem, as many stakeholders from the public and private sectors need to collaborate to create sustainable future services. Recent years have shown a growing interest in utilizing urban living labs (ULL) and similar quadruple helix approaches toward addressing wicked design challenges. However, when engaging in co-creation through living labs, many actors also see potential in adapting methodology and new ways-of-doing, to appropriate it and improve readiness for tackling other wicked challenges. The article draws upon a ULL initiative in the mobility service context to explore the main challenges for ULL partners to retain the ways-of-doing that develops in co-creation activities. Through our study, we identified that cocreation needs to be grounded in the known, to facilitate search and co-appropriation of the unknown as key for retaining ways-of-doing in ULL initiatives.

It is hard to predict the impact of technology on society before it is developed enough. For example, the issue can be attributed to the need for more cross-sectoral collaboration in the design process. However, a solution for anticipating such outcomes has been proposed through the quadruple helix innovation model, which states that the involvement of government, academia, industry, and the public is essential in innovation systems. The question of how this collaboration can successfully be staged to foresee possible impacts is an empirical endeavour. This paper presents an iterative case study of how ethnographic material can be used to ongoingly tailor speculative co-creation to facilitate responsible innovation (RI) principles. The result is reflected through two lenses; the tools developed in the project to facilitate co-creation activities and the stakeholder reflections evoked through these tools.

It is hard to predict the impact of technology on society before it is developed enough. For example, the issue can be attributed to the need for more cross-sectoral collaboration in the design process. However, a solution for anticipating such outcomes has been proposed through the quadruple helix innovation model, which states that the involvement of government, academia, industry, and the public is essential in innovation systems. The question of how this collaboration can successfully be staged to foresee possible impacts is an empirical endeavour. This paper presents an iterative case study of how ethnographic material can be used to ongoingly tailor speculative co-creation to facilitate responsible innovation (RI) principles. The result is reflected through two lenses; the tools developed in the project to facilitate co-creation activities and the stakeholder reflections evoked through these tools. © 2023 29th Annual Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2023. All rights reserved.