When: Monday 13 April 12:30 – 15:30
Where: Roxy Bar & Screen, Borough High Street, London, SE1 1LB
Can I attend? Yes, it’s part of Running Dialogues so free and open to the public
In all the excitement about Running Dialogues, I almost forgot that I was giving a talk in the first one on Monday (guess what I’ll be doing today!). Monday’s seminar is all about the role running plays in society and what its potential is and I’ve put that questioning very much at the forefront of my discussion of run-commuting. My short talk (about 15mins) is entitled ‘The potential of run-commuting’ and will cast both an optimistic and critical eye over the run-commuting movement to explore some of the different arenas that run-commuting may show promise.
I will be adopting a slightly different approach to this talk. Rather than structuring a story of my research (this is what I did, this is how, this is what I found, this is what it means), I will attempt to front end the key messages and work backwards to describe the detail. This approach is prompted both by the public and non-specialist audience we’ll have in attendance but also an interest in trying different styles of presentation.
Anyway, my brief abstract for the paper is below, and as ever, slides will be available at some stage afterwards. Anyone is welcome to come along to the seminar, it’s free and we have a great line up of speakers. Details here.
Running is emerging as an increasingly popular way for people to commute to/from work. The movement of people and things between places is a crucial and obligatory process of modern society – they make life happen. Each different mode of transport has a different role to play in society and has markedly differently effects upon it. This talk is interested in both the role and the effect of run-commuting as more people opt to swap cars, bikes, busses, trains and tubes for their trainers. Drawing upon the first research project into run-commuting, this talk will provide an overview of what is known about the practice and what there is still to know about it, before undertaking an initial assessment of the potential it shows as a mode of transport and ways in which run-commuting can be encouraged / facilitated. The presentation will finish with some thoughts on why run-commuting is a particularly interesting transport mode to research and the ways in which it challenges, and is valuable to, the way we understand running and transport.
Jographies 