Estelle Broyer

Profile

Research interests:

Critical urban geography, public space, publicness, democracy, inclusion, social justice, place-making, pragmatist inquiry, feminist and decolonial methodologies, qualitative research

PhD project:

Working title: “The politics and publicness of Low-traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) schemes in London”

This project seeks to explore the concerns, debates, and mobilizations that arise when various public goods—such as environmental sustainability, mobility, and social justice—intersect in programs of urban transformation. It does so through the case study of LTN schemes in several London boroughs in a moment of accelerated policy experimentation.

Cities around the world are redesigning their streets and limiting through-traffic to make roads safer, improve public health by reducing air and noise pollution and promoting active travel, and increase sociality on residential streets. While traffic reduction schemes aren't new in the United Kingdom, the COVID-19 pandemic and climate emergency have pushed London borough councils to urgently implement many new LTNs as trials, through Experimental Traffic Orders, ahead of consultations with the public. This approach has fuelled public debates, campaigns and protests, as well as shows of support.

What can we learn from LTNs as an innovation in trying to solve public problems such as through-traffic? How did LTNs themselves become a matter of public dispute and concern? How do the politics of LTNs play out in London and what ultimately becomes of these schemes? What does all this mean for the thriving of publics (and more broadly of democracy) at the neighbourhood or borough scale? These are some of the questions at the heart of my research.

Academic background:

• MA Geography, University of Washington

• BA Integrated Social Sciences, University of Washington

• MS Electronics Engineering, CPE Lyon

Supervisors: 

• Dr Regan Koch, School of Geography, QMUL

• Dr Joe Hoover, School of Politics and International Relations, QMUL

Funding: 

QMUL Principal’s Postgraduate Doctoral Research Studentship

Research

Publications