Periodic Reporting for period 3 - InclusivePublicSpace (Inclusive Public Space: Law, Universality and Difference in the Accessibility of Streets)
Période du rapport: 2022-01-01 au 2023-06-30
– Context and Objectives
This project is concerned with the accessibility of public space. It explores the legal and social justice problems which arise when city streets are designed, operated or managed in ways that exclude or marginalise pedestrians whose bodies, minds or life circumstances (eg being a parent(diverge from narrow ablist assumptions about who streets are designed for and used by. It is thus particularly concerned with the experiences of disabled and older people.
The project explores legal, political and activist engagement with the problem in 5 countries (India, Kenya, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA).
There are three main objectives:
Objective 1 – Experiential: To advance understanding of the causes and impact of exclusion.
Objective 2 – Legal: To advance understanding of how law is, and could be, used to make public space more inclusive.
Objective 3 – Perceptual: To advance understanding of whether and why exclusionary public space is regarded as a minority issue and to foster greater awareness and solidarity.
Important international legal and policy context for this project is provided by the commitments to accessibility and equality contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sustainable Development Goals.
This project is concerned with the accessibility of public space. It explores the legal and social justice problems which arise when city streets are designed, operated or managed in ways that exclude or marginalise pedestrians whose bodies, minds or life circumstances (eg being a parent(diverge from narrow ablist assumptions about who streets are designed for and used by. It is thus particularly concerned with the experiences of disabled and older people.
The project explores legal, political and activist engagement with the problem in 5 countries (India, Kenya, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA).
There are three main objectives:
Objective 1 – Experiential: To advance understanding of the causes and impact of exclusion.
Objective 2 – Legal: To advance understanding of how law is, and could be, used to make public space more inclusive.
Objective 3 – Perceptual: To advance understanding of whether and why exclusionary public space is regarded as a minority issue and to foster greater awareness and solidarity.
Important international legal and policy context for this project is provided by the commitments to accessibility and equality contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Project Amendments:
In its first thirty months, the project has undergone two significant amendments. The first of these, submitted to the ERC in October 2019, entailed changing one of the project countries (from China to India), establishing subcontractual relationships with our partners in the five countries, and moving the fieldwork to two cities instead of one in each of the five project countries. The second amendment, submitted to the ERC in June 2020, entailed changing our research methodology in response to the COVID-19 Crisis – eg by moving all the fieldwork planned for the first half of the project from face-to-face methods to online and phone communication; changing our approach to filming from one in which the participants themselves film difficult pedestrian journeys to ones in which a professional videographer films journeys described by the participants (with participants being able to choose whether or not to feature in the films); and building in more community-building events at a later stage of the project when we hope to be able to bring participants physically together.
Literature Reviews:
We have compiled a review of relevant literature spanning a range of academic disciplines. This is an ongoing activity, expanding in different directions according to the focus of conference papers and publications on which we are working.
Law and Policy Reports:
For each of the five project countries, we have completed an extensive law and policy analysis. As well as outlining the commitments made by national governments to international and continent-wide initiatives, these reports outline relevant law and policy at national, state/province and city levels. A range of types of law are covered – including constitutional, human rights, equality, tort, criminal and traffic law. A range of policy fields are also addressed, including disability, older people, transport, planning and equality. These reports will provide material for comparative analyses, as well as for detailed reflection on developments within particular countries. They also help to inform interviews, particularly with legal and policy stakeholders, and provide information we will use to produce guides for pedestrians as to how to use relevant law.
Fieldwork:
By the end of this reporting period, interviews and story-telling with pedestrians was complete and the filming of Leeds journeys was virtually finished. Interviews and story-telling in Glasgow and the two Netherlands cities were almost complete, but filming was yet to begin in these cities. In the USA, interviews were in progress, but slow participant recruitment was delaying the process. Group interviews with stakeholders were well underway in the UK and the Netherlands. Ethics clearance had been obtained for the fieldwork in India, which will begin shortly. An extensive application for ethical approval had been compiled for the Kenyan ethics authorities.
Awareness-Raising Tools:
We have begun initial planning for the development of documentary-style films and virtual reality films. Re the latter, we have designed an experiment to evaluate the relative impact and awareness-raising potential of VR films made from the first compared with third person perspective, and viewed on a desktop monitor compared with a head-mounted display.
Publications and Conference Papers:
We have published two articles in peer-reviewed journals and delivered conference papers in a range of academic conferences (with different disciplinary perspectives) and events oriented to different types of stakeholder.
In its first thirty months, the project has undergone two significant amendments. The first of these, submitted to the ERC in October 2019, entailed changing one of the project countries (from China to India), establishing subcontractual relationships with our partners in the five countries, and moving the fieldwork to two cities instead of one in each of the five project countries. The second amendment, submitted to the ERC in June 2020, entailed changing our research methodology in response to the COVID-19 Crisis – eg by moving all the fieldwork planned for the first half of the project from face-to-face methods to online and phone communication; changing our approach to filming from one in which the participants themselves film difficult pedestrian journeys to ones in which a professional videographer films journeys described by the participants (with participants being able to choose whether or not to feature in the films); and building in more community-building events at a later stage of the project when we hope to be able to bring participants physically together.
Literature Reviews:
We have compiled a review of relevant literature spanning a range of academic disciplines. This is an ongoing activity, expanding in different directions according to the focus of conference papers and publications on which we are working.
Law and Policy Reports:
For each of the five project countries, we have completed an extensive law and policy analysis. As well as outlining the commitments made by national governments to international and continent-wide initiatives, these reports outline relevant law and policy at national, state/province and city levels. A range of types of law are covered – including constitutional, human rights, equality, tort, criminal and traffic law. A range of policy fields are also addressed, including disability, older people, transport, planning and equality. These reports will provide material for comparative analyses, as well as for detailed reflection on developments within particular countries. They also help to inform interviews, particularly with legal and policy stakeholders, and provide information we will use to produce guides for pedestrians as to how to use relevant law.
Fieldwork:
By the end of this reporting period, interviews and story-telling with pedestrians was complete and the filming of Leeds journeys was virtually finished. Interviews and story-telling in Glasgow and the two Netherlands cities were almost complete, but filming was yet to begin in these cities. In the USA, interviews were in progress, but slow participant recruitment was delaying the process. Group interviews with stakeholders were well underway in the UK and the Netherlands. Ethics clearance had been obtained for the fieldwork in India, which will begin shortly. An extensive application for ethical approval had been compiled for the Kenyan ethics authorities.
Awareness-Raising Tools:
We have begun initial planning for the development of documentary-style films and virtual reality films. Re the latter, we have designed an experiment to evaluate the relative impact and awareness-raising potential of VR films made from the first compared with third person perspective, and viewed on a desktop monitor compared with a head-mounted display.
Publications and Conference Papers:
We have published two articles in peer-reviewed journals and delivered conference papers in a range of academic conferences (with different disciplinary perspectives) and events oriented to different types of stakeholder.
Our publication in the European Journal of Disability Research brings critical insights to Disability Studies about the impact of COVID on (disabled) pedestrian access to city streets. It draws on social media and grey literature accounts of the personal experiences of disabled people in the UK during periods of lockdown, as well as on policy and governmental documentation. While much has now been written about COVID and disability, this was an early piece and it remains distinctive in its focus on inclusive public space.
Our second publication, in the Cambridge Law Journal, draws on material in the UK law and policy report. It progresses the state of the art in equality law scholarship by providing a probing analysis of the anticipatory reasonable adjustment duty – an obligation applicable to providers of public functions (such as planners) and service providers (such as transport organisations, which has previously received surprisingly little attention from equality scholars. One of the main reasons for its lack of impact has been its lack of visibility. In this article, we aim to raise its visibility, as well as to identify other ways in which its potential power to enhance equality and inclusion could be unlocked.
We have gathered data, both through our law and policy reports and through the fieldwork, which is original and pushes the boundaries of previous research. Its particular transdisciplinary and multinational comparative approach will progress the state of the art in a range of fields in a variety of ways. Our use of virtual reality to build political solidarity and a drive for social change will push the boundaries of previous pedestrian-related research in this field. We are still in the process of working with the empirical data and film footage we have collected, as well as with data and video footage we are still collecting, to put together publications and awareness-raising tools. Accordingly, beyond the publications described above, we have not yet progressed the state of the art but are working on doing this and have already acquired data which will help to make this happen in due course.
Our second publication, in the Cambridge Law Journal, draws on material in the UK law and policy report. It progresses the state of the art in equality law scholarship by providing a probing analysis of the anticipatory reasonable adjustment duty – an obligation applicable to providers of public functions (such as planners) and service providers (such as transport organisations, which has previously received surprisingly little attention from equality scholars. One of the main reasons for its lack of impact has been its lack of visibility. In this article, we aim to raise its visibility, as well as to identify other ways in which its potential power to enhance equality and inclusion could be unlocked.
We have gathered data, both through our law and policy reports and through the fieldwork, which is original and pushes the boundaries of previous research. Its particular transdisciplinary and multinational comparative approach will progress the state of the art in a range of fields in a variety of ways. Our use of virtual reality to build political solidarity and a drive for social change will push the boundaries of previous pedestrian-related research in this field. We are still in the process of working with the empirical data and film footage we have collected, as well as with data and video footage we are still collecting, to put together publications and awareness-raising tools. Accordingly, beyond the publications described above, we have not yet progressed the state of the art but are working on doing this and have already acquired data which will help to make this happen in due course.