With apologies for cross-posting, I'd like to announce another Session Call for Papers for RGS 2016. Deadline for abstracts: 10th February 2016. Enquiries welcome.

Call for Papers for TGRG-sponsored session: Mobility, Transport and making Sustainable Places: a neglected Nexus

Convenors: Dr Kate Pangbourne (Aberdeen) and Dr Angela Curl (NZ)

The next RGS-IBG Annual International conference will take place at the Royal Geographical Society in London from the 30th August- 2nd September 2016 and will be chaired by Professor Peter Jackson (University of Sheffield). The conference theme is Nexus Thinking.

Profound disconnections remain between urban planning and transport planning. For a time, the sustainable development discourse that rose to prominence in the 1990s looked as if it might bridge this deep gulf, with an opportunity for integrating ‘Triple Pillar’ sustainability into governance processes. Instead, it created a new silo for sustainable development as separate to other governance domains. Consequently environmental governance remains separated from the process of governing of urban space. It is time to look again at building the nexus between mobility, transport and the making of sustainable places. Could climate change be the issue that finally establishes a nexus, or are other issues driving partial collaborations between policy domains? For example, in Scotland a ‘place standard’ has recently been developed in partnership by Scottish Government Architecture & Place, NHS Health Scotland and Architecture & Design Scotland, a partnership that notably does not explicitly include transport, though policy aims include promoting designing for compact, well-connected low-carbon places and advocating street design that prioritises pedestrians.

This session invites contributions that critically engage with the session theme. For example, contributions could focus on the following:

• ·Examples of non/cooperation between policy silos at all levels of governance that promote sustainable mobility in the context of sustainable place-making (or vice versa)
  
• ·        Examples of community–led place-making initiatives that dispense with artificial top-down structures that constrain thinking about development in sustainable place-making
  
• ·        Evaluations of activities that can be related to place-making (e.g. Smarter Choices)
  
• ·        Discussions of the relationships between places that generate unsustainable movement
  

Abstracts of 300 words are invited from those interested in presenting current or recent research at this session, including an indication of the TYPE of presentation proposed. The objective is for a lively debate, therefore one potential format for this session would be to have up to 10 x 20 slide pecha kucha presentations (each lasting 6 minutes and forty seconds) followed by a response from a distinguished discussant and a panel discussion between the presenters and the audience. A mix of formats will also be considered. If you have a viewpoint proposal rather than research, or wish to discuss a potential contribution, you are welcome to contact the convenor.

Please submit proposals to Kate Pangbourne ([log in to unmask]) by 10^th February 2016.

WIth best wishes

Kate