學術活動

In this lecture, I will reflect on recent developments in geographical research on transport. The first leg of my central argument will be that this research is now much more vibrant and diverse than is often acknowledged. This I will attribute primarily to the ways in which geographers from divergent backgrounds have become interested in how transport is entangled with other forms of circulation – for instance, of capital, greenhouse gas emissions, healthy food and digital information – in the current era. The second leg of the central argument will be that there are also reasons for caution. This is in part because of the risks involved in some of the ways in which big data about transport and mobility are being used in some sectors of transport geography. Another set of risks relates to the deployment of inevitably situated, Northern concepts, logics, theories and methodological practices in the now burgeoning geographical research on transport and mobility in Asia, Africa and Latin America. I will explore those risks and provide some suggestions about how they might be mitigated in future research on transport and mobility by geographers.

Director, Transport Studies Unit School of Geography and the Environment University of Oxford, United Kingdom.