Abstract
The growing interest in urban night-time economies and night-time transport policies presents an important context in which to examine how mobility justice is conceived and operationalised in policy-making. Literature on transport exclusion and transport justice documents the disadvantages experienced by different social groups and advances theoretical frameworks for distributive justice and transport accessibility. However, this literature has rarely considered the politics of whether and how mobility difference is recognised and planned for in transport policy, including issues of deliberative justice (participation) and epistemic justice (knowledge production). To address these research gaps, this paper engages with Sheller's (2018) theorisation of mobility justice and critically analyses the construction of mobile subjects in policy discourse on night-time mobility. We analyse policy documents part of night-time policy for Greater London to examine the extent to which the differentiated night-time mobilities across social categories (gender, age, ethnicity, income, etc.) are recognised – in other words, how the ‘politics of difference’ play out in transport policy-making. Findings show that the discursive construction of mobile subjects in London's night-time policy distinguishes between workers, consumers, and transport users, yet, these broad categories poorly account for differentiated mobility needs and practices. Publicly available data on differentiated night-time mobilities in London does not inform current policy discourse, obscuring disadvantages experienced by different groups of people moving through the city at night, and thus limits the capacity of existing policy interventions to address mobility injustices. These findings reaffirm the need for transport research to move beyond distributive justice and accessibility analysis, towards exploring the potential of thinking about distributive and epistemic justice for challenging the status quo of transport policy.
Highlights
Night-time mobilities are currently receiving increased attention within international policy circuits due to the rise of a night-time economy policy agenda and discourses around nightlife and 24-h cities (Hadfield, 2014)
This paper presents an analysis of current London night-time policies focusing on to what extent difference is acknowledged and planned for in relation to night-time mobility, and what this means for mobility justice
There are two reasons we find that these aspects of the mobility justice approach (Sheller, 2018)2 have value for thinking about difference and disrupting established transport policy
Summary
Night-time mobilities are currently receiving increased attention within international policy circuits due to the rise of a night-time economy policy agenda and discourses around nightlife and 24-h cities (Hadfield, 2014). As part of the 24-h city agenda, many cities are reviewing and debating the adequacy and expansion of night-time public transport provision, yet existing research shows that urban night-time policies generally lack an explicit focus on justice with respect to how different people move and experience the city at night, and what their related needs might be (Hadfield, 2014; Talbot, 2016; Plyushteva, 2018). Both policy and academic research relating to transport equity has predominately focused on day-time travel. This paper presents an analysis of current London night-time policies focusing on to what extent difference is acknowledged and planned for in relation to night-time mobility, and what this means for mobility justice
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