Disruption: the raw material for carbon change
'Disruption: the raw material for carbon change' is a £1.3m study funded by the RCUK Energy Programme. The project aims to highlight the ways in which 'disruption' impacts on mobility decision-making, identifying opportunities to change mobility practices in ways that reduce carbon emissions. This exploration takes place at three levels: within 'families'; within organisations, such as schools and businesses; and within government. The project team consists of academics from seven UK universities: Dr Jillian Annable, Aberdeen University, Dr Lesley Murray, University of Brighton, Prof. Iain Doherty, Glasgow University, Dr James Faulconbridge, University of Lancaster, Dr Greg Marsden (PI), University of Leeds, Dr Helen Roby, Open University and Dr Tim Chatterton, the University of West of England.
Project website: www.disruptionproject.net
Further information
Overall, the project seeks to produce knowledge on:
- mobility practices in a range of social and spatial contexts, with the understanding that these different contexts influence the ways we travel. This will help us identify ways to reduce barriers to positive change;
- the ways that deliberative processes can effect change in mobility practices through bringing together different social actors, both 'lay' and 'expert', in a number of forums. Participants will be given the opportunity to 'deliberate' the different issues that emerge throughout the research, and challenge each other about how to capture the opportunities for change; and
- the mechanisms for embedding these changes in everyday life, in organisational practices and in social policy, so that a substantial contribution to reducing carbon emissions from transport is achieved.
Researchers at the University of Brighton, Dr Lesley Murray and Karolina Doughty (School of Applied Social Science), are contributing to the project primarily through an ethnographic study of everyday mobility practices in Brighton. A parallel study on everyday mobility will be carried out in Lancaster by researchers at the University of Lancaster. This element of the study seeks to address gaps in knowledge by exploring the myriad factors that influence people's mobility, through the lens of disruptions in everyday life. Drawing on a range of mobile, visual and online methods, the research focuses on mobility within families, including children's mobility, and in doing so will identify issues that have wider implications for the understanding of everyday mobilities from a social science perspective.
The project makes use of a range of innovative research methods, including capturing mobility practices through Facebook and Twitter (participants will post to project-specific accounts) and carrying out video-recorded mobile interviews. The research participants will be able to choose how they work with researchers to best capture their travel experiences and how these are influenced by different disruptions, which they identify as being significant. This element of the research will then be used to inform a quantitative study of responses to disruptions, as well as the deliberative and policy embedding components of the overall research project.
The research has already attracted interest from the Department of Transport and the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
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