When: Monday, 1st of December, 6pm (GMT)
Where: Room M416 (The Robin Evans Room), Marylebone Campus, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS
Planning Cities beyond Mobility: Understanding, Governing, and Co-Creating Urban Access
Abstract:
For decades, urban policy has optimised movement—speed, flow, capacity—while losing sight of what movement is for: fair, dependable access to life’s opportunities. This inaugural lecture reframes planning around access rather than mobility, integrating three strands: understanding (theories and frameworks of opportunities, justice and dignity), governance (resetting institutions and policy to ensure people can actually reach essential opportunities safely and affordably), and co-creation (mobilising community capacity through school streets, living labs and temporary trials). I show how access-oriented frameworks reveal who benefits, who is excluded and why; how governance can align mandates, budgets and standards with equity goals; and how co-creation turns contested change into durable, just outcomes. Drawing on European collaborations and London cases, I outline a practical pathway from listening and prototyping to institutional embedding—so cities measure what matters, govern for recognition and care, and iterate reforms that communities can own.