For the benefit of health: A relational interpretation of accessibility

Abstract

This presentation points out that the discussions on accessibility are focused on the impact of land-use and transportation systems on the functioning of society in general or more specific on the opportunities to participate in activities at different locations. However, being mobile to participate in activities is so much more than instrumental. Based on time geography, the presentation will develop a relational interpretation of accessibility. This interpretation is based on Actor Network Theory, (Post-) Phenomenology, Emotional Geography and Assemblage Theory. It introduces relational concepts in time geography, such as ‘embodied exposure, ‘relational string’ and ‘window of vulnerabilities’.

Speaker’s Bio

By discipline, Martin Dijst is urban geographer and in 2009 appointed as full professor of Urban Development and Spatial Mobility at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. December 1, 2017, he has been appointed as director of the department Urban Development and Mobility at LISER, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxemburg. His research on activity and travel behaviour, accessibility, impact of Information and Communication technologies, exposures to (un)healthy environments, social interactions with people and urban metabolism, is most often positioned in a time geographical framework supplemented with post-structuralist perspectives. In 2013, he initiated and managed till 2017 the Utrecht University interdisciplinary research program Healthy Urban Living. In this program, researchers from a large variety of medical, behavioural and GIS scientific disciplines started to work together to study issues related to healthy urban living. As part of the program, he initiated and developed with Rick Grobbee (UMCU) the Global and Geo Health Data Center.