EVALUATING AND PROMOTING THE ACTIVE MOBILITY OF CHILDREN FROM DISADVANTAGED BACKGROUNDS: A PARTICIPATIVE AND COMPARATIVE APPROACH BETWEEN DUBLIN AND STRASBOURG
PRESENTATION :
This project investigates the active mobility of children (walking, cycling, scooter ) indisadvantaged urban areas in Dublin and
Strasbourg, and differences in mobility patterns by age. In both Ireland and France, media reports frequently lament historic
declines in active mobility among children, including in commuting to school; the rise of child obesity; and the negative
environmental impacts of car-dependent, sedentary lifestyles. In this context, decision-makers have issued numerous recent
policy measures aimed at increasing children’s active mobility; while academic researchers have worked to identify mechanisms
by which to accomplish this aim. However many of these policies rely heavily or exclusively on ‘behavioural change’ (as nudge
theory) as the means to achieve increased active mobility, at the expense of considering structural and sociocultural barriers to
active mobility such as those posed by deficits in the provision of infrastructure for children. Moreover decision makers’ disregard
of structural intervention is facilitated by the tendency of much recent Irish and French research in relevant fields such as
education, travel to education, and child sport to avoid considerations of spatial justice or critical investigations of the built
environment.
This project addresses this imbalance by proposing several lines of inquiry that foreground potential sociocultural and structural
barriers to child active mobility in urban areas of disadvantage. How are children’s opportunities for active mobility in Dublin and
Strasbourg shaped by the built environment in each city, and what are the main similarities and differences between the two
contexts? How does the provision of infrastructure for children (for example schools; school environs;; facilities for sport, informal
education and leisure; transport [cycle lanes etc.]) compare in the two cities, and what is the potential impact on children’s
mobility? How does the provision of infrastructure for children in urban areas that include areas of disadvantage in the two
contexts compare to provision in more-advantaged areas, what are the potential reasons for any such differences, and how do
these phenomena compare in the two contexts? How has recent and historical decision-making in the two cities shaped the built
environment in each case, particularly with reference to children’s infrastructure? To what degree is policy and decision-making
on children’s active mobility in the two contexts informed by children’s data, including data reported by children, and to what
degree are children and families provided with opportunities to participate in decision-making? How do mobility patterns for
children change as they transition from primary to secondary school? By posing questions such as these in the two contexts, this
project aims to make a substantial contribution to the literature and to future policy-making.