Books by Nicholas A Scott
Papers by Nicholas A Scott
Journal of Transport Geography, 2020
This article contributes to the study of critical vélomobilities by exploring an understudied asp... more This article contributes to the study of critical vélomobilities by exploring an understudied aspect of cycling justice, namely the political and cultural contexts that support cycling as a common good. The common good refers to the advancement of collective rather than individual interests. I analyze whether or not Canadians support cycling as a common good, drawing on a survey conducted by Angus Reid in 2018. My analysis focuses on whether such moral support for cycling varies by region in Canada and the possible role played by the country's deeply regionalized political cultures. These cultures, rooted in diverging histories, competing ideologies and conflicting relations with fossil fuels, may shape this moral support alongside other factors which I control for and explore, such as gender and social class. The article concludes that, beyond the effects of these other factors, divisions between eastern and western political cultures in Canada form a salient context for cycling justice and the assembly of cycling as a common good.
International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 2019
This article contends that the 'go-along' contains more technical and ontological agility as a me... more This article contends that the 'go-along' contains more technical and ontological agility as a methodology for social research than is often assumed. After distinguishing central spectrums of technical and ontological agility rooted in different research designs and philosophical orientations, I examine how researchers can nourish it while refining the go-along's moral purpose in the context of environmental and related mobility crises that define the Anthropocene. I argue researchers can cultivate the go-along's agility and moral purpose by deploying it with quantitative context, comparing go-along case studies, moving past human supremacism and illuminating ecologically just forms of mobility that respect other species of life and their habitats. To show one way that the go-along can accomplish these things, I present two vignettes of cycling in urban Canada, drawing on a mobile video ethnography of cycling, a funded study in sociology, conducted between 2014 and 2018.
International Journal of Social Research Methodology , 2016
This article examines the use of quantitative methods to advance feminist-inspired understandings... more This article examines the use of quantitative methods to advance feminist-inspired understandings of intersectionality. We acknowledge a range of conflicting opinions about the suitability of current quantitative techniques. To contribute to this debate, we assess the conceptualizations of intersectionality embedded in the most common approach to quantitative analysis, multiple regression. We identify three features of intersectional analysis highlighted in the feminist literature: 1) attention to context; 2) a heuristic approach to identifying relevant dimensions of inequality; 3) and addressing the complex, multidimensional structuring of inequality. Using these criteria, we evaluate: 1) multiple regression including context as a higher-order interaction; 2) multiple regressions run within different contexts and compared; and 3) multilevel regression including context as a higher-order level of analysis. We demonstrate with research illustrations that the models do a progressively better job at satisfying the criteria. We conclude that the third model offers a conceptualization of intersectionality that is the most consistent with the feminist literature. Abstract word count: 157 Article word Count: 7,582
Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 2016
This article explores how bicycle travel is changing Ottawa. I argue cycling is transforming Otta... more This article explores how bicycle travel is changing Ottawa. I argue cycling is transforming Ottawa's unique production of urban mobility, as a capital and a city of people. Challenging behavioural research on cycling and neoliberal approaches to its expansion, which emphasize individual responsibilities and intentions to bike, this article analyzes the changing moral worth of cycling and its embodied performance. I draw on research by Laurent Th évenot and Luc Boltanski to show how the morality and performance of cycling are interconnected. My analysis draws on a larger mixed methods study on urban mobility in Ottawa undertaken between 2007 and 2012, and recent follow-up analysis on changes in cycling policy and cycling infrastructure between 2012 and 2015. Résumé Cet article explore comment le cyclisme est en train de transformer la mobilité urbaine dans la ville d'Ottawa. Cet article analyse l'évolution de la valeur morale du cyclisme et ses énoncés de performances. Il s'agit dès lors de questionner la recherche comportementale sur le cyclisme et des approches néolibérale en regards à son expansion, qui mettent l'accent sur les responsabilités individuelles et les intentions de faire du vélo. Ainsi, l'article analyse l' évolution de la valeur morale du cyclisme et de ses performances incarnées. L'analyse est basée sur les recherches de Laurent Th évenot et Luc Boltanski qui démontre comment la moralité et la performance du cyclisme sont interconnectés. L'analyse s'appuie sur une plus grande étude de méthodes mixtes sur la mobilité urbaine à Ottawa entrepris entre 2007 et 2012 et incorpore les changements en matière de politique cycliste et infrastructures cyclistes entre 2012 et 2015.
Book Chapters by Nicholas A Scott
The Routledge Handbook of Henri Lefebvre, The City and Urban Society (eds. Michael E. Leary-Owhin, John P. McCarthy), 2019
In this chapter I use Lefebvre's production of space ideas to analyze the production of nature an... more In this chapter I use Lefebvre's production of space ideas to analyze the production of nature and expand Lefebvrian ecological analysis. I apply the concepts of spatial practice, representational spaces, representations of space and Lefebvre's historical approach to the production of urban space to illuminate the production of nature. More than Lefebvre's observations on nature, I rely on his forward thinking critique of the car, and put Lefebvre's ideas in conversation with the new mobilities paradigm and recent research on the globalizing system of car travel. To advance research on the production of nature, and draw on the spirit of Lefebvre's car critique, I examine how nature is produced by cycling in Canada. My results suggest cycling can reassemble nature in the city outside the parameters of hegemonic automobility and neoliberal capitalism. I propose that automobility, in the form of early twentieth century parkways in North America, can ecologically inspire the expansion of cycling nature in the city. The chapter concludes by suggesting a line of future Lefebvrian ecological analysis about combining the production of nature with differential space.
Technologies of Mobility in the Americas (eds. P. Vannini, P. Jiron, O. B. Jensen, L. Budd, and C. Fisker), 2012
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Books by Nicholas A Scott
Papers by Nicholas A Scott
Book Chapters by Nicholas A Scott