Projects

Understanding the Dynamics of Urban Flexibility and Reconstruction

In the wake of catastrophic disruptions (natural disasters, pandemics or civil conflict) a city’s infrastructure and identity can either be restored or radically transformed. This project, led by the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS) will look at regions such as the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa where such disruptions are endemic to understand how cities respond to and emerge out of reconstruction.

Climate Change and the Ageing Population

This project, based at the Oxford Institute of Ageing, explores conflicts and convergences between climate change and the ageing population in the UK and Japan. According to the UN, half the global city population will be over 60 by the year 2050, and many of the conveniences that address age-related changes (automobiles, elevators, air-conditioning) are also highly dependent on energy. By linking together these two drivers, this project aims to develop flexible responses to the combined challenges of climate and demographic change.

A Low-Carbon Economy: New Business Models in the Built Environment

Buildings account for approximately 47% of UK carbon emissions, including lighting, HVAC and other equipment. This project explores the opportunity for new business models to deliver these products and services in the context of policy and technological change. Led by Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, the project looks at changing roles for energy companies, telecommunications businesses and the real estate sector, and the ways these organisations might reformulate themselves in a changing policy context.

Global Migration and the Right to the Cities of the Future

This project, developed by Oxford’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS), seeks to understand changing patterns of settlement, global labour markets, and new forms of citizenship at the global, national and local level. In particular, the project will develop models for integrating migrants into local communities, improving cohesion and facing the ethical and practical tensions of allocating limited resources, such as housing and healthcare services.

Globalisation, Climate Change and Urban Governance: Balancing the Scales for Both Efficient and Pro-Poor Urban Futures – The Case of Brazil and the UK

This project, based at Oxford Brookes University, aims to understand the urban governance challenges arising from contemporary processes of globalisation in Brazil and the UK. By contrasting the current UK recession with the rapid growth taking place in Brazil, the project will look at both the potential and the limitations of the two countries’ governance strategies, with respect to social inclusion, climate change and sustainability.

Visioning and Backcasting for Transport Futures in Chinese Cities

This research project will analyse policy pathways and business models to support sustainable transport in China. Transport provides essential infrastructure for development and is often viewed as "the maker and breaker of cities" yet it is the most difficult sector within which to reduce CO2. The rapid and large-scale urbanisation of China provides an unprecedented and urgent opportunity to "leapfrog" existing technology and tackle mobility on a grand scale, both for China and other economies that follow in its footsteps. The project uses visioning and backcasting to examine possible futures, outline policy options, and test the feasibility of balancing competing priorities with a sustainable, low-carbon transport system. The research is led by Oxford University's Transport Studies Unit in collaboration with Oxford's Environmental Change Institute, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, and Chinese research institutes.

Urban Climate Governance

This project, based in the University of Oxford's Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS) and the Environmental Change Institute (ECI),  argues for an expansion of the urban climate change research agenda that includes an examination of the drivers of these emerging partnerships and for theorizing the potential and emerging role of SMEs in the wider context of non-state actors. It theorizes small businesses as agents of change in the multi-level governance of climate change, and cities as niche spaces in which sustainable development paths might be explored. Using the cases of Metro Vancouver, Canada, and London, UK, the project examines the drivers of emerging partnerships between various levels of government and small businesses in the interests of climate change mitigation.