[sustran] Gender/Mobility Network?? Why and next steps - a proposal for discussion

[Eric Britton]

Dear Friends,
 
We seem to be making progress here. So let me see if I can build on
Margaret's latest (see below) and a bit of work that I have done over
the last two days to see how we might be able to be of a bit of help
from here.
 
Not to deluge you all with endless emails on our subject, but it's my
firm conviction that this is a critical time for this effort, either we
move ahead on this now -- or all we have done this far heads for the
absolutely merciless  shredder of indifference and neglect. So off we go
on one last push from here, this time in the memory of my dear mother
who would never have accepted that her son just sit on his hands in the
face of this problem..  And to all of you who know so much more about
this than I do - my sheepishly grinning hope that this is still of a bit
of interest.
 
As a first step, I have gone back to start to create a dedicated web
site and supporting tool set that could make things a bit easier for us
in engineering these necessary next steps. If you go to
http://www.xability.com <http://www.xability.com/>   you will see our
working draft - and if you have comments, suggestions, corrections or
further leads I any of this, well this would be very timely and much
welcome.
 
Against this background here are three I believe important points which
may be worth a bit more thought?
 
1.         Naming:
 
I would like to ask you to consider adjusting the name of this group
effort to the Gender/Mobility Network, for reason I would now like to
spell out succinctly.
 
(An alternative or sub-title in the compact eighteenth century mold
might run: "Or how people of energy and conscience might better put
together their minds and efforts to create a more just society, and
specifically when it comes to adjusting the asymmetries of daily life
which at present disadvantage women severely disproportionately in
matters relating to physical and electronic mobility".)
 
(Let me also quote directly from the formidable Margaret who in her
introduction to the Sarpin program answers this question in far better
words than IU can find: "Why gender and transport?", she answers with
the following telling words: "There is a relationship between mobility,
power and well being. The differences between male and female travel
patterns and the cultural rules and roles associated with these
differences are undercharted in the policy environment. The impact of
constrained mobility on bargaining also has its impact on what comes to
be available as resource and service within local constraints. No better
demonstration of these constraints can be found than in Africa's
portrait of maternal mortality: constraints on mobility and on the
resources for mobility and accessibility have devastating consequences
for women's health on the African continent.")
 
(As to the short name of the network? GAMNET is if anything uglier in
the mouth and mind even that the not so pretty GATNET - but first things
first and then we can get to this.  And one can hope that one of us will
come up with something that is far better than that.  For example why
not think about calling it something more like ATHENA: attractive,
memorable and not entirely beside the point. And female. And a Goddess
(who can argue with a goddess?). No reason to jump into this one.)
 
2.         The Pillars
 
These are basically three, which I would like to run though you one time
as follows:
 
(1)        Gender:
While this may be crystal clear to all of you here, to the outside world
this word needs to be made unambiguous and resounding from the very
start.  It's a far richer concept than first meets the eye (to the
extent that even a reasonably well informed and well intentioned guy
like myself have had to be dragged up the learning curve by all of you
on this in our collaboration over the last six months.).  I am now fully
- and here I chose my words - in awe of the power of this concept, but I
fear that the rest of the world will need some early and vivid help in
getting this straight.  My point is this. Since we are trying to extend
the outreach and participation, it would be a great idea to make sure
that our most important concepts are spelled out on top and in words
that make the bottom line very clear indeed.


(2)                 Mobility:
This word choice is an old friend to all of us who have labored with
these issues over the past years.  Why mobility and not "transport"?
Well, not least because we need a defining concept which stretches to
bring in from the beginning the whole concept of ICT and moving
electrons as well as people, water, what have you. 
 
(3)                 Network: 
Our final key defining concept. Our goal here is - check me on this - to
see if we can create a flexible easy efficient set of tools and routines
that will permit all of us scattered in projects and places around the
world, to 'keep in touch'. How to do this? Fax, mail, (paid) telephone,
long boring expensive and environmentally destructive air trips? Or is
there another way of going about this. Of course what we and the others
of you have managed to do with the Gatnet and other Bank-supported
linkages is a good start. But hey, it's 2005 and that is a lot m9ore out
there than just this.


3. Next Steps?
 
Let me advance a couple of ideas here for your consideration and
decision.
 
(1)                 Working web site:
Can we work with http://www.ability.com <http://www.ability.com/>  for
the time being to get started, and then when and if something better
comes along we can consider about how to fold what we would have
developed to then into that something better.


(2)                 Outreach program:
I propose that we need to reach well beyond the group that ewe have
assembled thus far, and that perhaps one way to do this will be (a) to
extend and correct the inventories of groups and programs working in
these areas, as well as our print and other references. And as we
identify these new potential actors, we need to get in touch personally
and see how if at all that might be able to fit in and profit from all
this.


(3)        And now on to the next stage?
Here is where some of you may start to get a bit uncomfortable.  Fair
enough given that we all having our habits and ways of working, and that
none of us much likes taking on anything new and maybe troublesome.
Fair enough, so let's take it in modest steps.  Specifically I would now
like to put a very simple yes/n proposal before you to test our capacity
as individuals and as a group to move up a significant notch in the
networking technology spectrum.  


Specifically I propose to invite you all to join us in a Skype network.
Please understand however that this is not big deal and that we and the
3,916,628 uses who are presently online when I just looked and
communicating for free - are far from geniuses, but we do seem to have a
need to communicate. Easily and as close to nothing (that often being
the case) as we can.
 
Is Skype perfect? Not quite but it is universally available, free,
pretty well proven, plenty serviceable and has passed the day after day
international litmus test for us and a number of our associates around
the world over more than a year now. But what about its ability to work
if you have only a dial-up connection in Addis or Dacca. No problem.
Here is how the Skype people put it: "You can use Skype when you are
connected with a 33.6 Kbps modem or faster. However, when you are using
a modem for other types of Internet traffic, such as web surfing, file
sharing or email you may experience disruptions in the voice
communication.


(3)                 And more specifically?
                                                              i.      I
invite you to go to http://www.skype.com <http://www.skype.com/>  and
download and install the program.  It's a ten minute job, max. 
                                                            ii.
Then when you have a moment, I invite you to test your new connection
with me. All you have to do is pop ericbritton into the number slot, and
there I will be on the other end of the line.  (Bear in mind that Paris
time is GMT+1. To time any eventual meeting, especially if more than two
of us are involved each in our own distant pocket of the world, we use a
handy distance meeting planner which you can access at
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html?p1=195 )
                                                          iii.      Then
once we have verified our one-on-one connections and our first handful
of colleagues come on board, we can then organize the first little group
call. (Note: to get this right a bit of preparation is needed, including
a quick agenda, a meeting plan, and a host to make sure that the whole
thing clicks along smoothly. Perhaps we can also ask one of our number
each time to take a few notes so that we can share the experience with
the others, including a brief comment on the mechanics of communicating
with each other.  In the event, our experience is that it only gets
better with time.)
                                                           iv.      In
fact the voice conferencing is the first easy step toward a more
complete collaborative group work experience, but let's see if for now
we can take this in easy step.  For more on how this all works, I can
point you to http://www.xmobility.org <http://www.xmobility.org/>  which
does a pretty good job of introducing the various options and
procedures.
 
That's it. I'll just sit back here and wait for my Skype phone to start
ringing so that we can start to get to know each other.
 
I promise you are going to like this. And that it is indeed going to
make a difference.
 
With all good wishes,
 
Eric 
 
The New Mobility Agenda is on line at  http://www.newmobility.org 
Le Frene, 8/10 rue Joseph Bara                      75006 Paris, France
Tel:  Europe: +331 4326 1323        North America +1 310 601-8468
Mobile: +336 73.21 58.68   F: +331 53.01 28.96  Skype: ericbritton
E:  <mailto:eric.britton at ecoplan.org> eric.britton at ecoplan.org
Backup:  <mailto:fekbritton at gmail.com> fekbritton at gmail.com
 
 
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret Sybil Grieco-Kanbur [mailto:mg294 at cornell.edu] 
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 12:28 AM
To: Gender and Transport
Subject: [gatnet] Re: gender and transport group is longer active at
world bank
 
The reason for focusing on the world bank is that it is tied into the
rationale it already established of the importance of work on gender and
transport. It was either wrong then or it is wrong now.  But it put up
the rationales for action on this issue in the public domain, and it
should not be allowed to dismantle that action without making public its
rationale for the dismantling of that action.
 
The core of the issue is that we have not yet managed to ensure that
this area gets proper professional space.  There is no gender and
transport journal for insistence. Is there somebody lurking out there on
this list that can organise a journal where the issues can be regularly,
repeatedly and routinely visited and rehearsed.
 
Gender and transport is important to almost every possible equity goal.
>From health to wealth - the importance of gender and transport is
undeniable but avoidable if institutions are set up in such a way that
the issue is low on the food chain.
 
Best Margaret
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Margaret Sybil Grieco-Kanbur [mailto:mg294 at cornell.edu] 
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2005 12:20 AM
To: Gender and Transport
Subject: [gatnet] RE: The gender and transport group is no longer active
at the world bank
 
The gender and transport group was brought into being by john flora,
director for transport at the world bank (now retired). The work of
Christina Malmberg Calvo on gender and transport undertaken at the world
bank was fundamental to the development of the area. Christina is now
res
rep in the Dominican republic - so yes, some essential champions have
moved on.
 
The present director of transport is Maryvonne Plessais-Fraissard - a
woman.  This in itself is a sign that things do change but without
champions they revert.  Perhaps one approach might be for a substantial
institutional request to be made of the present director of transport
for
a gender and thematic group to be reestablished or at the very least
that
the bank undertake the substantial archiving of gender and transport
research and make it available on its web site.
 
There is the need of an institutional champion to make the pressure - is
there one lurking on this list.
 
Margaret
 
 
 
 
 
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