Negotiating normative goodness and territorial stigma: the affective economies of bus mobilities in the green transition

Public transport is seen as a key player in the green transition of the transport sector in the Global North. The bus is primarily associated with positive values, reflecting a lifestyle and choice-centred sustainability discourse. The paper argues that the bus system can be thought of as an affective economy of “goodness” that stands in great contrast with bus-dependent lived experience of bus mobilities, in particular people living in marginalized urban areas. Qualitative interviews with young and adult bus riders living in disadvantaged urban neighbourhoods are contrasted with an analysis of regional transport plans to reveal discrepancies between the envisioned ideal future users and the current collective of bus users. The paper outlines how bus-dependent groups negotiate their own everyday bus experiences, and the affective economy of stigma related to their neighbourhoods, with public discourses on bus mobilities as normatively good. The article highlights the need to acknowledge how affect works in relation to public transport and the green transition, and points to the need to critically engage with questions of equality and justice in policy making and planning practices in the context of public transport.