Justin Spinney

Philip Pinch

Suzanne Reimer

This book brings together research working at the boundary between design knowledges and mobilities, offering a novel collection for both theorists and practitioners. Drawing upon detailed case studies, it demonstrates the diverse roles of design in shaping mobility at different spaces and scales: across cities; within different types of buildings and infrastructures; and through commuting, work and leisure activities. A range of international scholars illustrate the designed mobilities of car parks, traffic lights, street benches, pedestrian wayfinding systems and accessible design in the urban environment; they examine spaces within hospitals, airports and train stations and investigate design practices for bicycles, future urban vehicles and MotoGP motorcycle racing. Other contributions explore overlooked mobile artefacts such as television and video game remote controls, 3D printing and the types of packaging which enable objects themselves to move around. This book demonstrates how the tools, assumptions and processes of design shape spaces of mobility, and also illuminates how shifts in the fluidity and circulation of people, practices and materials in turn reconfigure practices of design. Mobilising Design develops multi-disciplinary understandings of design, drawing upon diverse literatures including design history, product design, architecture and cultural geography. By highlighting often invisible artefacts and associated knowledges and controversies, the book foregrounds the taken-for-granted ways in which everyday mobility is designed. It will be of interest to scholars in geography, sociology, economic history, architecture, design and urban theory.

Mobilising Design

Academic interest in cycling has burgeoned in recent years with significant literature relating to the health and environmental benefits of cycling, the necessity for cycle-specific infrastructure, and the embodied experiences of cycling. Based upon primary research in a variety of contexts such as London, Shanghai and Taipei, this book demonstrates that recent developments in urban cycling policy and practice are closely linked to broader processes of capital accumulation. It argues that cycling is increasingly caught up in discourses around Smart cities that emphasise technological solutions to environmental problems and neoliberal ideas on individual responsibility and biopolitical conduct, which only results in solutions that prioritise those who are already mobile. The central argument of the book is not that the popularisation of cycling is inherently bad, but that the manner in which cycling is being popularised gives cause for social and environmental concern. Ultimately the book argues that cycling has now become a vehicle for sustaining pro-growth agendas rather than subverting them or shifting to sustainable no-growth/de-growth and less technologically driven visions of modernity. This book makes an innovative contribution to the fields of Cycling Studies, Mobilities and Transport and will be of interest to students and academics working in Human Geography, Transport Studies, Urban Studies, Urban Planning, Public Policy, Sociology and Sustainability.

Justin Spinney

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