Projects
Projects: Projects for Investigator |
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| Reference Number | ES/J007455/1 | |
| Title | TRANSPORT AND TECHNOLOGY | |
| Status | Completed | |
| Energy Categories | Energy Efficiency(Transport) 100%; | |
| Research Types | Basic and strategic applied research 100% | |
| Science and Technology Fields | SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology) 100% | |
| UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation | Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Policy and regulation) 25%; Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour) 75%; |
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| Principal Investigator |
Distinguished Professor J (John ) Urry No email address given Sociology Lancaster University |
|
| Award Type | Standard | |
| Funding Source | ESRC | |
| Start Date | 01 May 2011 | |
| End Date | 28 February 2013 | |
| Duration | 22 months | |
| Total Grant Value | £197,557 | |
| Industrial Sectors | ||
| Region | North West | |
| Programme | Evaluation | |
| Investigators | Principal Investigator | Distinguished Professor J (John ) Urry , Sociology, Lancaster University (99.999%) |
| Other Investigator | Professor G Lyons , Computing Engineering and Maths Science, University of the West of England (0.001%) |
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| Web Site | ||
| Objectives | ||
| Abstract | Despite cases in which travel is undertaken purely for its own sake, travel is usually considered to be derived from a need or desire to participate in a wide range of activities - accessing people, goods, services and opportunities. People's schedules of activities in turn are derived from social practices (and the patterning of land use that affects where and when activities can take place). Travel demand, in part, is shaped directly and indirectly through the emergence of various kinds of technologies. Until now, discussion of emerging technologies in the transport literature has focussed on the impact of: (i) transport technologies (designed to assist traffic management and the movement of people through the transport system); and (ii) information and communication technologies (ICTs, that enable a substitution for or reorganisation of travel in time and space).This project introduces a third type of technologies labelled 'non-transport technologies' reflecting technologies that shape social practices causing indirect impacts on travel demand. The invention of refrigeration, for example, enabled storing food for longer periods both in shops and in homes. This facilitated weekly rather than daily shopping and was allied to economies of scale for retailers in the form of out of town supermarkets.The research examines socio-political conditions that have influenced, positively or negatively, the uptake and impact of non-transport technologies on social practice - and thus travel. A mixed-methodological approach is adopted to classify/cluster the different forms of non-transport technology according to their impacts and examine how these technologies can combine and interact so transforming patterns of demand for travel. The research will construct and examine different future scenarios (framed by social, political and technological assumptions) in order to assess the scope for non-transport technologies to have a major impact upon travel demand in a 'climate change' and 'resource-constrained' futures. The project will develop policy recommendations and initiate consideration of how understandings from this and related research could inform the modification/development of policy-support tools used to assess or predict future patterns of travel. | |
| Publications | (none) |
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| Final Report | (none) |
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| Added to Database | 04/02/15 | |
