ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

The social impacts of urban sustainable mobility policies, case study of the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood (EBLN)

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 03 | MOBILITY

Speaker

Mr sara melasecchi (University of the West of England)

Description

I am a third-year PhD student at the Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments, University of the West of England (UWE), currently in the writing-up phase of my research.

This analysis sits at the intersection of mobility justice (Sheller, 2018)- which interrogates who gains or loses mobility privileges- and urban social justice (Marcuse et al., 2009), exposing the processes that exacerbate urban social exclusion under the guise of sustainability.
Using the Capability Approach (CA) (Nussbaum, 2011; Nussbaum and Sen, 1993; Sen, 1984, 1985, 1990, 1993) as a foundational theory, this research links the theoretical debate of the just transition with its empirical application in urban sustainable mobility. Empirically, it frames accessibility as a key capability (Vecchio and Martens, 2021) to look for mobility marginality– the condition of being unable to transform intermediary actions (i.e. transport policies) to individual benefits thus being at the margins of mobility.
As a case study, it examines the social impacts of the East Bristol Liveable Neighborhood (EBLN), an urban mobility scheme aimed at traffic reduction, air quality and driving emissions.
Through the analysis of approx. 85 documents, a Stakeholder Engagement phase and a substantial body of Primary Data generated through a year-long weekly Participant Observation exercise while volunteering at the neighbourhood’s Community Centre and the Thematic Analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews (tot. n= 41) with different actors involved, the research contributes to the understanding of social justice in mitigation policies’ by giving voice to people directly involved and impacted by it, especially socially and economically vulnerable residents. The study creates a narrative of mobility marginality by assessing how the policy impacts different groups of people based on their resources, personal circumstances and consequent accessibility levels defined as the increased/diminished opportunity set available to individuals to achieve their desired functionings.
These findings raise urgent questions relevant to just transition and policymaking, such as the importance of place in decarbonization strategies, the issue of adaptive preferences and mobile commoning as a future sustainable urban transport strategy.

References

Marcuse, P., Connolly, J., Novy, J., Olivo, I., Potter, C. and Steil, J. (2009) Searching for the just city: debates in urban theory and practice [online]. Routledge. [Accessed 25 April 2024].
Mullen, C. and Marsden, G. (2016) Mobility justice in low carbon energy transitions. Energy Research & Social Science. 18, pp. 109–117.
Nussbaum, M. and Sen, A. (1993) The quality of life. Clarendon press.
Nussbaum, M.C. (2011) Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach. Harvard University Press.
Schwanen, T. (2021) Achieving just transitions to low-carbon urban mobility. Nature Energy. 6 (7), pp. 685–687.
Schwanen, T. (2020) Low-carbon mobility in London: a just transition? One Earth. 2 (2), pp. 132–134.
Sen, A. (1985) Commodities and capabilities. Amsterdam New York New York, NY.
Sen, A.K. (1990) Individual freedom as social commitment. India International Centre Quarterly. 17 (1), pp. 101–115.
Sen, A.K. (1984) Rights and capabilities in Resources, Values and Development, Harvard.
Sheller, M. and Urry, J. (2016) Mobilizing the new mobilities paradigm. Applied Mobilities [online]. 1 (1), pp. 10–25.
Vecchio, G. and Martens, K. (2021) Accessibility and the Capabilities Approach: a review of the literature and proposal for conceptual advancements. Transport Reviews [online]. 41 (6), pp. 833–854.