Projects

Multispeed cities & the Logistics of Living in an Information Age

Aims

The overall aim of the project is to investigate how ITCs affect social inclusion and exclusion
To assess the effect of combinations of multiple information technologies on soical polarisation
Whether synergies between technologies have multiplier effects on the logistics of daily life
How ITCs intersect with time-space rountines in the city
Whether information rich communities are enabled to compress more activities into their time while information poor ones are made to expend more time in accomplishing the same tasks

Methodology

The research compares two neighbourhoods in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, one in bottom hundred most deprived wards in the country, the other in affluent 20%. The project will use a questionnaire to establish baseline figures of local ICT usage then a mix of in-depth interviews, focus groups and space-time diaries to examine how technologies combine with everyday actions. Also the sorts of activities enable by using and not using ITCs. The time use and spatial range of a variety of actions will thus be examined. Four domains of activities will be focused upon - financiers, training and education, households provsionning and community engagement. These will enable the project to examine social exculsion and `time squeeze´

Keywords

Time-space; time-squeeze; social exclusion; polarisation; neighbourhood

Publications

A two module session at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, March 2004, where 8 papers (including one by the project team) address related themes to the project under the sponsorship of the AAG Communication Geography Specialty Group.

Crang, M, Crosbie, T & Graham, S (2006) Variable Geometries of Connection: Urban Digital Divides and the Uses of Information Technology. Urban Studies, Vol. 43, No. 13, 1–20

Crang M, Crosbie  T, Graham S, 2007, "Technology, time – space, and the remediation of neighbourhood life" Environment and Planning A 39 (10) 2405 – 2422 (pdf)

Crang, M., S. Graham, et al. (2006). "Variable Geometries of Connection: Urban Digital Divides and the Uses of Information Technology." Urban Studies 43(13): 2551-2570.