The number of cross-border workers in Luxembourg has steadily increased over the last 30 years. In the collective imagination these cross-border workers come to the Grand Duchy just to work. This paper challenges this representation by measuring the functional integration of cross-border workers in Luxembourg. Using some useful tools linked to the field of Time Geography, it is possible to analyze their activity spaces according to the spatial and temporal organization of their daily activities and trip chains. The spatial distribution and organization of their activities on both sides of the border provide the methodological and analytical support for the findings presented in this paper. The juxtaposition of trip chains with activity spaces allows the identification and characterization of the degree of functional integration of cross-border workers in Luxembourg. Moreover, based on a quantitative survey conducted in three different countries, our results show there are five types of cross-border worker profiles in terms of the degree of integration: commuter-only, home-centered, dispersed, hybrid, and functionally integrated.

Nous vivons dans un monde toujours plus saturé. Saturé de signes, de normes, d’objets et de sollicitations qui tous contribuent à nos aliénations quotidiennes. Afin de retrouver les voies d’une émancipation, ce manifeste défend l’idée que la réponse à cette saturation réside dans la capacité à retrouver la maitrise politique de nos rythmes, qu’ils soient individuels ou collectifs. Les auteurs explorent dans ces pages la part fondamentalement spatiale et territoriale du temps et les dynamiques temporelles des formes spatiales afin de formuler les grandes lignes d’une rythmologie. Ils invitent à ne pas simplement opposer le plein au vide, le ralentissement à l’accélération ou encore le surmenage à l’ennui mais à penser ensemble ce qui nous permet de souffler et ce qui nous fait désirer. En retrouvant son sens premier de « façon de fluer », le concept de rythme permet de proposer une conception dynamique des sociétés, de mêler la mesure et l’expérience, d’ajouter aux régularités les mouvements spontanés, les aléas, la désorganisation et le désordre. De façon plus pratique, il permet d’analyser et de gérer des questions aussi diverses que la congestion du trafic, l’épuisement personnel ou l’accueil des foules. La politique des rythmes constitue au final un appel à une approche chorégraphique de l’émancipation, soucieuse d’accueillir les différentes manières de vivre tout en composant un monde en commun.

The numbers of electric vehicles (EV) will increase as many countries perceive EVs as a solution to reduce the emissions of transportation and therefore incentivize their adoption. However, the deployment of public charging infrastructure is lagging behind that of EVs, which represents a potential barrier to their wide-scale adoption. The objective of this paper is to develop a comprehensive overview of potential EV charging solutions to be deployed in urban areas. Using a micro-Delphi approach, experts from transport, energy and urban planning were consulted and identified 15 realistic options for charging electric vehicles in urban environments by 2035. The solutions range from purely technical to more service oriented. Most of these solutions already exist today, although some remain at a very early stage of deployment. The five most likely options were on-street public charging points, charging at work, fast-charging stations, using building domestic plugs and semi-fast charging in public areas. When combined with the typical mobility and residential profiles, our results show that EV drivers will most likely rely on a mix of solutions, when they have no home chargers. As such, no breakthrough or major shift is expected in charging infrastructures, rather a scale-up of existing solutions. Our analysis concludes that urban charging options will be numerous and no single solution is expected to dominate as users with different EV user profiles will charge at different times and locations.

With an activity-based approach, this article offers a new reading of cross-border integration by exploring the social and spatial conditions that predispose specific populations of Greater Geneva to cross its borders. Five different daily cross-border patterns were identified showing that travelling to the neighbouring country is still uncommon among the least qualified populations and women, and that this trend now extends beyond the mere cross-border labour market. Logistic regressions show that Greater Geneva is witnessing a functionalisation of its cross-border integration, revealing mechanisms where the increase of particular mobility may foster segregation and inequalities. This article argues for an approach where cross-border integration is not an objective but rather is a consequence of obligations and constraints that individuals face in their daily behaviours.

As suggested by the conservation of resources theory, in contemporary societies time is considered as a limited resource in the same way as money and energy. In the current paper, a novel daily rhythm approach related to motility is presented, in order to highlight the effects of life acceleration on family life management and other professional, leisure, and consumption activities. The analysis is based on a qualitative survey involving 20 families (40 interviewees) that include long-distance commuters living in the suburban areas of Voiron and Thionville in France. These families are composed of an active couple and at least two children under 18 years of age, and the couple commutes at least 60 km every day between home and work. Based on this particularly stressful daily configuration, the qualitative survey deals with the modalities of managing daily time between and within these couples. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of the corpus of interviews shows first, a very high daily rhythm, and second, the diversity of strategies that lead to a typology of resources used to deal with daily time pressures. The results suggest that forms of time-related vulnerabilities depend on social, economic, and temporal resources, while confirming the importance of rhythms analysis in the daily mobility field and in the resource theory.