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This article responds to the uncritical use of chronological time and the strict division between past, present, and future when thinking about mobility behavior or mobility decisions. On the basis of this critique, it introduces the concept of intentional automobility, which relies on the Bergsonian–Deleuzian conception of time—duration (la durée). It shows that transport-mode decisions are not only made in the present, separated from the past and the future, but that the past and the future are part of every such decision. Using the example of the metropolitan area of Brno, Czech Republic, a postsocialist space, we show how differently socialist and postsocialist societies can be temporally normalized. At the same time, contemporary postsocialist mobility decisions are still influenced by socialist time norms—chrononormatives. Our main research question is how everyday mobility decisions between the car and public transport are influenced by the temporal norms of the society. To answer this question, we have employed a mixed methods research design that has been divided into a quantitative analysis of mode choice for individual trips and a qualitative analysis of statements about mode choice. Key findings include the relationship between transport-mode preference and a particular chrononormative. We identify four contexts—time, routing, alcohol, and everyday activity planning—in which the chrononormatives associated with the car and public transport are substitutable. It is on this basis that we introduce intentional automobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a case study of a kerb – the social stone – found at a tram traffic Island, the text demonstrates the re/production of the ableist city and analyses processes of transforming such a city into an accessible space for people with disabilities. The authors apply actor-network theory to analyse the mutual construction of space and bodies. To understand this construction, the concept of topology is used, which the article develops by introducing 'ableist' and 'accessible' topology. Unlike topography, which is in concord with able-bodied people, topology is more suitable for the analysis of space when also including non-standard bodies. Moreover, it allows the authors to analyse the mechanisms that reproduce and control the currently inaccessible city on the one hand, and it provide some room for change on the other. However, to make this change happen, a specific network must be established. To trace the associations that create such a network, the study uses in-depth interviews with involved actors collected over a ten-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the regeneration of a former textile factory in the Czech Republic, focusing on different types of actors and their distinctive rhythmicity. At least three types of actors with a distinct relation to time can be identified in the regeneration process: NGOs, municipal authorities, and private companies. NGOs tend to think with a long-term scope, municipal authorities have a four-year election period, and private companies plan time in months. The authors explore the question: how is the different rhythmicity of individual actors reflected in the process of negotiating brownfield regeneration in Ústí nad Orlicí, a small Czech town located outside metropolitan areas and development axes? We use an interpretive framework derived from Lefebvre's The Production of Space and Rhythmanalysis and analyze in-depth interviews with key actors of regeneration. At a general level, interconnections of the politics of time and the politics of space are explored. One of the main findings is that actors use specific combinations of time and space – in the form of slowing-down and speeding-up tools – in regeneration negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the process of establishing inter-municipal cooperation among towns, particularly among towns in a polycentric settlement system. Emphasis is on the specific temporal context of transition from a central administration to a decentralized form. For a more detailed analysis, the territory of the eastern part of Pardubice region, Czech Republic was chosen as the study area. Our research question therefore aims at the mechanisms of cooperation experimented with by the representatives of individual towns and it reads: "Which forms of inter-municipal cooperation can capitalize on a polycentric settlement system following the dismantling of the socialist centralized governance system?" To answer this question, semi-structured interviews were conducted with authorities of towns of the area. Based on the analysis of interviews, we show four distinct stages in establishing mutual cooperation were determined: stakes, emerging border areas, connecting projects and joint territory management. They are not stages in terms of discrete periods of time, but phases in a process of getting new experience with cooperation among municipalities. Findings are that a new strategic action field needs to be established in order to achieve a form of inter-municipal cooperation that would enable to gain the benefits of a polycentric post-socialist region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many metropolitan conceptualizations apply 'territorial grammar' when articulating the region. This paper approaches the metropolitan region as an entity whose extent and internal structure are negotiated in both space and time. We argue that the 'planning imagination', which is predominantly spatial in nature, must be temporalized by considering 'temporal grammar'. The main objective of this study is to explore how a temporal dimension can be integrated more effectively into how the metropolitan region is imagined and conceptualized. Therefore, we employ the dialogical concept of heteroglossia to present the metropolitan region as a continuous dialogue between municipalities of different power, as an open, ongoing and negotiated spatiotemporal unit. Our secondary aim is to employ this conceptualization in an empirical description of the spatiotemporal arrangement of a particular region (Brno, Czech Republic, summer 2015). For this purpose, we use data related to the opening hours of shops selling fast-moving consumer goods. Analysis revealed four specific voices present in the complex heteroglossia of the region: the voice of the core, the city of Brno; the voice of secondary urban centres; the voice of municipalities located in the hinterlands of secondary urban centres; and the voice of traditional agricultural municipalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]