Debbie Hopkins

University of Oxford | OX · School of Geography and the Environment

Preference for private, motorised transportation grew substantially throughout the global North, during the 20th Century. Through this time rates of licencing, and car ownership, and vehicle kilometres travelled (VKT) rose across age groups. This had a range of environmental and social equity implications, and ignited a priority for investment in r...

While the term “climate change” is highly recognized by the nonscientific general public, understandings of its manifestations are varied, contrasting, and complex. It is argued that this is because climate change has become simultaneously a physical and a social phenomenon. Thus, climate change is becoming socialized through nonscientific interpre...

Conceptualisations of 'vulnerability' vary amongst scholarly communities, contributing to a wide variety of applications. Research investigating vulnerability to climate change has often excluded non-climatic changes which may contribute to degrees of vulnerability perceived or experienced. This paper introduces a comprehensive contextual vulnerabi...

This paper uses empirical material gathered with young adults in New Zealand to examine a potential sustainability transition-in-practice. It draws from two frameworks; the actor-centred Energy Cultures Framework to explore mobility behaviours, and the multi-level perspective (MLP) to situate behaviour change within the socio-technical transitions...

Cycling is a healthy, low-cost, and low-carbon alternative to motorised transport. As a relatively fast active mode of transport, cycling can overcome the distance barrier of walking, whilst also providing cardiovascular exercise and reducing demand for motor vehicle travel. The ‘cycling renaissance’ has seen an increase in the number of cyclists i...

Despite growing recognition of the material impacts of fossil fuel extraction and use, many economic sectors remain highly dependent on these fuels. Amid growing pressure to-at a minimum-appear to be doing something , businesses increasingly communicate the actions they (seek to) take to reduce their environmental impacts. Oftentimes they aim to bu...

Experiences of poverty can manifest in multiple aspects of everyday life, often in interlinking ways. One example is 'double energy vulnerability', where a household faces both energy poverty and transport poverty simultaneously. This can result in trade-offs, where prioritising one essential need (e.g., transport) makes accessing another impossibl...

Background: Walking and cycling to school have been extensively studied in urban settings, whereas data from rural areas remain sparse. This study examined perceptions of walking and cycling to school amongst adolescents living within 4.8 km of school in rural New Zealand. Methods: Adolescents (n=62; 53.2% females; 15.6±1.5 years; five schools) res...

This paper reviews tourism-relevant advances in climate science and tourism policy in the Australasia region over the past 20 years, focusing particularly on the seven years (2015–2021) since the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Within the Australasia region, Australia and New Zealand have a complicated relationship with climate change, as both countr...

Freight moves through water and air, by rail and road. Freight mobilities are central to global logistics. These mobilities are constitutive of the concept, ideology and practice of just-in-time logistics. Heralded for its efficiency and productivity, with everything arriving right when it is needed, thinking on just-in-time rarely engages with que...

This investigation sought to examine physical activity (PA) as a potential determinant of chronic boredom and associated well-being within the context of COVID-related restrictions. A representative sample of U.K. adults ( N = 1,521) completed a survey on June 1, 2020. Bivariate analyses demonstrated that individuals who met guidelines and maintain...

Background Adolescents perceive different barriers for walking versus cycling to school. This study examined whether adolescents’ perceptions of walking and cycling differ by home-to-school distance. Methods Adolescents (n = 1,401; age: 15.1 ± 1.4 years; 55.1% females) completed an online survey about their school travel and perceptions of walking...

Academics are part of a small minority that are responsible for disproportionate air travel emissions. Responding to high aviation emissions requires that the complexities of academic air travel practices are understood in specific geographical and institutional contexts. This chapter addresses the work-sociology of academic aeromobility in the con...

The concept of ‘double energy vulnerability’ describes a circumstance whereby people are at heightened risk of energy poverty and transport poverty simultaneously – a particularly severe form of energy injustice. However, analysis of which people and places are most likely to experience this phenomenon remains limited. This paper begins to address...

In the ten years of Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions publishing, sustainability transitions have advanced in some domains, yet much remains to be done. For these transitions to grow, accelerate, and be socially accepted, our research needs to integrate an intentionally spatial whole systems justice approach that combines thinking f...

The Rich Kids of Instagram (RKOI) portray luxury lifestyles on social media. The potential roles of travel and transport within these online displays of affluence have not yet been examined. This paper’s purpose is to analyse how transport modes and luxury travel are depicted and interrelated through RKOI images. Co-occurrence analyses were conduct...

Aviation remains a problematic sector of the global economy in times of climate emergency. Grounded in the ideology of reconfiguration, we adopt a system transitions perspective to address high emissions leisure travel. Our focus falls upon the marketing communications of airlines as a critical component in the prevailing socio-technical regime. Th...

The paralysis of global tourism caused by COVID-19 made it possible to conduct a unique and nearly real-time online survey to investigate adaptations and reactions to sudden severe leisure travel restrictions among residents in the Oslo metropolitan area of Norway during the 2020 Easter/spring holiday period. Stress relief, socialising, social bond...

People travel by car for a wide variety of reasons. A large proportion of household travel is for non-commuting purposes, including social and recreational journeys. The emergence and (potential) diffusion of highly automated vehicles, also known as autonomous vehicles (AVs), could transform the way (some) people work and travel. Should they become...

Crisis could be the descriptor of the era in which we live. Financial, health, climate and refugee crises abound, there is significant interest in reflecting on the implications of these intersecting crises for different geographies, human (and non-human) communities, economic sectors and at different timescales. The articles included in the specia...

The need to transition away from the current car-dominated transport system is well documented in sustainability, health and transportation literatures. Despite growing interest in active and public transport modes, the car still dominates travel preferences for most age groups. There is, however, some evidence of declining preferences for car-base...

Automated vehicles have become a popular topic of conversation. Initially, these conversations were limited to technology developers, innovators and engineers, as they worked to progressed the various technologies and systems that are required to create automated vehicles. Then, over time, these conversations extended to other communities; lawyers,...

Transport to school can contribute significantly to adolescents’ physical activity but in New Zealand – as in many other countries around the world – many adolescents are driven to school. Public transport offers an opportunity to integrate incidental active transport into school commutes. In this paper, we bring together multiple sources of data i...

Movement requires some form of energy. Contemporary systems of transport have become dependent on fossil fuels, with road transport reliant mainly on petrol/gasoline and diesel-powered internal combustion engines. The primary focus on energy supply has neglected the important role of energy demand in efforts to reduce transport-related emissions, w...

Dr. Mari Martiskainen is a senior research fellow at Sussex Energy Group (SEG), Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), based at the University of Sussex. Martiskainen is also the theme lead for equity and justice at the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS), based at University of Oxford. She is an expert in energy policy and susta...

Objectives This study examined the impact of the COVID‐19 lockdown on the physical activity (PA) of UK adults and potential motivational determinants of such behaviour. Design and methods A survey was conducted with 1,521 UK adults recruited through Prolific.co in early June 2020. Along with demographic information, questions assessed current PA,...

Travelling to school by car diminishes opportunities for physical activity and contributes to traffic congestion and associated noise and air pollution. This meta-analysis examined sociodemographic characteristics and built environment associates of travelling to school by car compared to using active transport among New Zealand (NZ) adolescents. F...

Tourism is central to late-modern life, and tourism research that threatens this centrality is prone to media attention. Framed by sociotechnical transitions theory, we introduce the concept of 'shadowcasting' to show how tourism knowledge disseminated through the media, combined with public comments on its reporting, cast shadows that co-constitut...

Borders and practices of bordering are undergoing substantive symbolical and material changes, at least in/around the UK (Hagen, 2018). The EU has a unique relationship with borders between individual countries; transport networks unite territories, and 'freedom of movement' enables frictionless bordering. The June 2016 UK Brexit campaign and refer...

Background Home-to-school distances and the need for students to be driven to/from school may limit adolescents' physical activity levels. School choice and school zoning policies can influence rates of active transport to/from school, and traffic volumes during school commuting times. This study aimed to quantify the effects of adolescents' enrolm...

Automated vehicles (AVs) have the potential to cause profound shifts across a wide range of areas of human life, including economic structures, land use, lifestyles and personal well-being. Most current social science on AVs is narrowly framed. Research on public attitudes has focused on whether people are likely to accept and use AVs. We contend t...

Biennials, regional hubs and virtual attendance can slash emissions, new calculations show. Biennials, regional hubs and virtual attendance can slash emissions, new calculations show.

Background Parental perceptions towards different modes of transport correlate with adolescents’ mode choice for school trips. Whether parental attitudes differ for walking versus cycling and/or home-to-school distance is unknown. We compared parental perceptions of walking versus cycling to school in adolescents in Dunedin, New Zealand and examine...

Based on an extensive synthesis of semi-structured interviews, media content analysis, and systematic reviews, this article conducts a qualitative meta-analysis of more than 560 sources of evidence to identify 38 visions associated with seven different low-carbon innovations – automated mobility, electric vehicles, smart meters, nuclear power, unco...

The sustainability transitions research network research agenda reflects the impressive growth and diversity of sustainability transitions scholarship, premised on an ethos of interdisciplinarity and openness to other research traditions and informed by increasingly diverse empirical case studies. Nonetheless, an inclination to integrate concepts,...

Introduction Natural experiments are considered a priority for examining causal associations between the built environment (BE) and physical activity (PA) because the randomised controlled trial design is rarely feasible. Few natural experiments have examined the effects of walking and cycling infrastructure on PA and active transport in adults, an...

Despite increasing geographic mobility among academic staff, gendered patterns of involvement in academic mobility have largely escaped scrutiny. Positioned within literatures on internationalisation, physical proximity, gender and parenthood in academic mobility and understandings of gender as a process enacted through both discursive and embodied...

The promotion of solar photovoltaics (PV) is one way that countries can reduce their energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. While there has been substantial growth in the uptake of PV in countries around the world, often coupled with financial incentives, climate change mitigation demands accelerated transition pathways. To drive purposeful polic...

This article presents a series of commentaries on Transit Life: How Commuting is Transforming Our Cities, published by MIT Press in 2018. Centring on an in‐depth case study of Sydney, the book argues the need to attend carefully to the fine‐grained detail of the commuting experience. In all sorts of ways, Transit Life presents a way of thinking abo...

The domains of transport and tourism exist and operate together and apart from one another. They have complex, interesting but also largely unsustainable relationships. Despite this, research into sustainable tourism has often focused on that which is stationary, without due consideration of the wide-ranging implications of tourism-mobilities. Conv...

Abstracts are welcome until 15 November 2019 for our stream on Gender, Diversity, Work and Transport at the Gender, Work & Organization 11th Biennial International Interdisciplinary Conference from 24th to 26th June 2020 Transforming Contexts, Transforming Selves: Gender in New Times University of Kent, Canterbury, UK Please send abstract or enquir...

This stream aims to seek out and bring together researchers interested in any aspects of gender, diversity, equality and inclusion in work and employment across the transport sector, adopting a range of theoretical approaches and methodologies. It welcomes papers on any modes of transport including land (road, rail, inland waterways and logistics/s...

Air travel is often justified as ‘necessary’ or ‘unavoidable’, in the sense that trips have purpose and value. Yet it is evident that people travel for reasons that may include forced and voluntary movement, with motives ranging from visiting friends and family, to leisure, or business. In light of the challenge to decarbonise transport, and the ne...

Background: Adolescents’ obesity rates are increasing while physical activity levels are falling in most high-income countries. Transport to school can be a significant contributor to daily physical activity among adolescents but in New Zealand, many adolescents are driven to school. Public transport journeys usually involve some active transport a...

Notions of what a successful academic should be doing – researching, publishing, teaching, serving the academic community – are often dependent upon particular practices of corporeal mobilities. These practices discursively and materially connect historically situated academic mobilities with the “modern,” globalised university system. At the same...

Theoretically framed by the concepts of networks, co-presence and proximity, we explore the interplay of corporeal and virtual academic mobilities in the context of ‘remote institutions’ to advance the work-sociology of aeromobility at a time of climate crisis. Empirical insights are drawn from 31 in-depth interviews conducted with academic staff a...

Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) have the potential to disrupt all industries tied to transport, including tourism. This conceptual paper breaks new ground by providing an in-depth imaginings approach to the potential future far-reaching implications of CAVs for urban tourism. Set against key debates in urban studies and urban tourism, we d...

The national policy context influences micro-level management actions for natural World Heritage facing the challenge of climate change in the developing world. Little is currently known about how climate vulnerable natural World Heritage is managed to build resilience within the socio-ecological system. Management actions based on conservation, bi...

Achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement will require sustained and systematic reductions in energy demand. This chapter closes Transitions in Energy Efficiency and Demand by considering what we have learnt about energy efficiency and energy demand reduction through the previous 12 chapters (Chapters 2 to 13). It begins by restating the importanc...

Meeting the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement and limiting global temperature increases to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels demands rapid reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions. Reducing energy demand has a central role in achieving this goal, but existing policy initiatives have been largely incremental in terms of the technol...

Meeting the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement and limiting global temperature increases to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels demands rapid reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions. Reducing energy demand has a central role in achieving this goal, but existing policy initiatives have been largely incremental in terms of the technol...

Shared mobility is being advanced as a novel, technologically sophisticated approach to reducing the environmental impacts of high levels of car ownership. However, communities have long shared modes of transport for reasons other than environmental quality. We describe the shared mobility practices undertaken in a Māori community in the East Cape...

Contemporary systems of mobility are undergoing a transition towards automation. In the UK, this transition is being led by (often new) partnerships between incumbent manufacturers and new entrants, in collaboration with national governments, local/regional councils, and research institutions. This paper first offers a framework for analyzing the g...

New Zealand legislation removing school zones radically reshaped school choice, resulting in increased school stratification from parental choice frequently driven by social factors such as ethnic makeup of the school community. This article considers school choice through the eyes of 1,465 adolescents from 12 secondary schools in Dunedin (New Zeal...

The dominance of automobility is giving rise to unsustainable outcomes, not least of which is its contribution to climate change. At the same time, business-as-usual transport systems are entering a period of turbulence as a result of influences such as new and disruptive technologies, intelligent systems, new business models, changing consumer exp...

This study examined intrapersonal factors related to cycling to school among adolescents in two New Zealand cities based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Prototype Willingness Model. Data were collected from 803 adolescents (Christchurch: n = 373, Dunedin: n = 430; age 13–18 years; living ≤4 km from school; non-boarders). Despite similar...

Transport is a vast and complex socio-technical system, and despite a clear need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels due to undesirable environmental impacts, it is largely locked into business-as-usual. Systems approaches are a useful way to help make sense of multiple competing influences which may be simultaneously driving change and supporting...

Background Absence of requirements to attend a local school combined with social factors driving school choice make distance to school less important in school choice decisions. However, school choice decisions have implications not only for education but also for public health, transport and environmental sustainability. This study examined correl...

Absence of requirements to attend a local school combined with social factors driving school choice make distance to school less important in school choice decisions. This study examined correlates of adolescents’ enrolment in the closest school in the absence of school zoning policies.

http://hdl.handle.net/10523/7104

Background: Cycling to school is less common than walking in many developed countries. This cross-sectional study compared correlates and perceptions of walking versus cycling to school in Dunedin adolescents living ≤4. km from school. Methods: Adolescents (n=764; 44.6% males; 15.2±1.4 years) from 12 secondary schools completed an online survey abo...

A thorough exploration of low carbon mobility transitions from a range of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives; A broad view of low carbon transition across travel, transport, tourism and mobilities studies; A critical exploration of the global, regional and local prospects for low carbon mobility transitions; Illustrating examples of low carb...

The first edited collection to examine how we can transition to a future of low carbon methods of travel and mobility.

The first edited collection to examine how we can transition to a future of low carbon methods of travel and mobility.

In this paper, we examine the factors that contribute to the replication or reduction of automobility amongst young adults. Semi-structured interviews conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand, with 51 drivers and non-drivers, aged 18–35 years old, form the empirical material. The findings build upon previous research and extend understandings of how seven...

In this paper we present the findings of a qualitative investigation of change trends in urban freight deliveries. The empirical material was gathered with urban freight (courier) company managers and drivers in Aotearoa New Zealand. It presents personal accounts of the everyday lived experiences of those intimately involved in the delivery of good...

Introduction Active transport to school (ATS) is a convenient way to increase physical activity and undertake an environmentally sustainable travel practice. The Built Environment and Active Transport to School (BEATS) Study examines ATS in adolescents in Dunedin, New Zealand, using ecological models for active transport that account for individual...

Conservation management in Norway is anchored in the historical tradition of friluftsliv although Norway's evolving economic policy signals that growing priority is being given to recreation and nature-based tourism development in association with protected natural areas (PNAs). Here we present the results of an international comparative study that...

Anthropogenic climate change is a wicked problem, requiring fundamental behavioural and technological responses now, in the Anthropocene, a term denoting the current era of human dominance of biological, chemical and geological processes on Earth. Travel and transport policies are key to effective responses, confronting both leisure and business tr...

Climate change awareness, risk perception and policy support vary between and within countries. National-scale comparisons can help to explain this variability and be used to develop targeted interventions.

With a population of 4.5 million, New Zealand’s contribution to total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is relatively low. On a per capita basis, however, New Zealand’s GHG emissions are the fifth highest among Annex 1 countries, due in part to the relative size of the pastoral agricultural sector. Biophysical impacts of climate change will lar...

Climate change awareness, risk perception and policy support vary between and within countries. National-scale comparisons can help to explain this variability and be used to develop targeted interventions.While scientific understanding of the biophysical impacts of climate change has increased, along with degrees of certainty, there is still wide...

Shani and Arad (2014) claimed that tourism scholars tend to endorse the most pessimistic assessments regarding climate change, and that anthropogenic climate change was a “fashionable” and “highly controversial scientific topic”. This brief rejoinder provides the balance that is missing from such climate change denial and skepticism studies on clim...

This final response to the two climate change denial papers by Shani and Arad further highlights the inaccuracies, misinformation and errors in their commentaries. The obfuscation of scientific research and the consensus on anthropogenic climate change may have significant long-term negative consequences for better understanding the implications of...

Shani and Arad (2014) claimed that tourism scholars tend to endorse the most pessimistic assessments regarding climate change, and that anthropogenic climate change was a “fashionable” and “highly controversial scientific topic”. This brief rejoinder provides the balance that is missing from such climate change denial and skepticism studies on clim...

The Built Environment and Active Transport to School (BEATS) Study examines active transport to school (ATS) in adolescents in Dunedin, New Zealand, using the ecological model for active transport which accounts for individual, social, environmental, and policy influences. This article describes the BEATS Study design, the establishment of research...

The dominance of fossil fuel‐powered transport systems presents a serious risk to human well‐being and the natural environment. Transitioning to a low‐carbon transport system requires changes to many dimensions of transport, including: technologies, and mobility practices and expectations. It also requires changes across multiple scales of activity...

The negative impacts of climate change for the ski industry have been well documented. However, research has largely focused on key ski markets in North America and Continental Europe. The study presented in this paper addresses climate change perceptions and responses in the more marginal ski destination of Scotland. Using a qualitative, interpret...

Rising awareness of the environmental impacts of dominant mobility practices led to the development of the sustainable mobility paradigm. This paradigm advocates three features of a mobility system: 1. A reduced need to travel, 2. Modal shift towards more sustainable options, and 3. Reduced vehicle kilometres travelled. In this paper, two sets of d...