I’ve been thinking more recently about focusing my final project on the idea of mobility justice, and thinking critically about walkable cities by asking the question ‘walkable for who?’. To conceptualise this more I’ve been reading Jennie Middleton’s book ‘The Walkable City: Dimensions of Walking and Overlapping Walks of Life’, which argues that ‘walkability’ is meaningless unless it considers the broader inequalities and intersectionalities that exist in the lived experience of the city. She critiques the often disembodied or depoliticised approach to urban planning, which she argues creates a level of abstraction that makes it very difficult to see where an everyday subject fits into these ideas. For example, the embodied experience of the city as a woman can be substantially different than for a man, due to feelings of unsafety walking alone etc. These unequal experiences have major implications for the overall experience of residents of the city, and thus should be key to our approaches to urban design.  Our experiences of walking are closely tied to our social identities, thus walking should be considered an intersectional practice in relation to class, race, age, disability, and gender. 

Middleton also writes that “walking is just as much about inequalities as it is about emancipation”. I really love this quote as it highlights that walkabledesign is not just about being car-independent, or about creating the freedom for residents to explore the city, but it should also incorporate how this is entirely an unequal experience dependent on our social identities.

I’ve also been reading some of Leslie Kern’s ‘Feminist City’, which is interesting as it talks about the importance of social ties specifically for women in the city. She writes of her friends as her ‘safety net’, allowing her the freedom to explore and enjoy the city by not having to do it in the danger of being alone. Again, this idea of the embodied approach to the city feels integral in designing our streets for all who reside in it, considering their diverse needs and experiences of the city. How would our cities look different if they were designed with these diverse needs in mind? 

Jane Jacobs in her book ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ writes that “A neighbourhood is not only an association of buildings but also a network of social relationships, an environment where the feelings and the sympathy can flourish”. This quote (and book in general) is a really great example of viewing the city, not just as the physical buildings it encompasses, but as the WHO behind it. Part of this is focusing on fostering social relationships and building community. Jane Jacobs really emphasises the interconnectedness of residents and the significance of community in making a neighbourhood livable. I think it shows the importance of prioritising the creation of environments that facilitate and nurture these relationships in our city designs. 

So overall, the inclusion of mobility justice in our urban design involves considering the WHO behind the city, and thinking about who is not currently represented through our currently representations of the city. How can we make our cities more accessible for all? Addressing inequalities to foster a sense of belonging for all residents.

The Embodied Approach To Urban Design / Lauren McDougall / Knowledge Integration and Project Planning: Data, Inequality and Society (2023-24) by is licensed under a