Abstract
ABSTRACT This article analyses commuting by elderly Ukrainian passengers on tramways and trolleybuses as a symbiosis between human bodies and public electric vehicles. First, aging is presented as an important part of the socio-material order of Ukrainian cities. Then, using ethnographic methods, the research traces how elderly, mostly female, bodies and aging vehicles are singled out as a symbiotic assemblage formed under rigid social assistance policies. Mutual dependencies between bodies and vehicles help them both remain in the city. In the discussion, this symbiotic assemblage is connected to the larger policy and political context of Ukraine in terms of Europeanization. Using assemblage thinking and the notion of symbiosis allows us to see elderly commuters on Ukrainian tram and trolleybuses not as mere end-users of the city but as co-creators of urban space.
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