Postgraduate Course: Transport and Society (EFIE11498)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Transport does not merely serve society: it shapes society, as society shapes transport. This course examines how transport systems and societal contexts co-produce outcomes such as equity, sustainability, health and economic opportunity. Students explore transport as a socio-technical system shaped by governance, infrastructure, behaviour, data and technological change. Key topics include mobility justice and inequalities in access, systems thinking, transport futures and scenario methods under uncertainty and climate constraints, and evidence-informed policy and strategy design. |
| Course description |
Transport is not only a technical domain but a social, political and ethical arena where decisions about infrastructure, services, pricing and regulation shape everyday life and long-term transitions. This course provides an interdisciplinary foundation for understanding transport-society interactions and for developing robust, evidence-informed responses to contemporary challenges including decarbonisation, inequalities in mobility and access, and the governance of emerging mobility technologies. Students critically analyse how transport interventions distribute benefits and burdens across different groups and places, and how societal factors influence transport needs and outcomes.
The course develops three complementary analytical capabilities:
(i) critical framing of transport-and-society problems using relevant concepts and research evidence;
(ii) systems thinking to model interdependencies, feedbacks, leverage points and unintended consequences; and
(iii) futures thinking to explore plausible transport futures, incorporating socio-technical change, uncertainty and climate constraints. Students then integrate these capabilities to design and justify ethically aware, future-proof strategies and policy packages.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Hybrid Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute delivers many of its courses in hybrid mode. This means that you may have some online students joining sessions for this course. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: in some cases, students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- All presentations, and whole class discussions will be recorded (see the Lecture Recording and Virtual Classroom policies for more details).
You will need access to a personal computing device for this course. Most activities will take place in a web browser, unless otherwise stated. We recommend using a device with a screen, a physical keyboard, and internet access.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 30 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 8,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 6,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 6,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by means of the following components:
1) Transport and Society Challenge Portfolio (100%)
A portfolio submission of 4,000 words equivalent (excluding references/appendices).
Students select a transport-and-society challenge anchored in their locality or professional context and submit a single dossier comprising four elements:
Element 1 (LO1) Critical analysis: problem framing + critical literature synthesis.
Element 2 (LO2) Systems thinking: systems map/model + commentary on feedbacks, leverage points, unintended consequences.
Element 3 (LO3) Futures: 15-year horizon futures work using one named futures method + critique of plausibility, uncertainty and climate constraints.
Element 4 (LO4) Strategy package: evidence-informed, ethically aware, future-proof strategy package + justification; includes critique of datasets and a short exploratory analysis.
Learning Outcomes Assessed by Component: 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Feedback |
Feedback on any formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The Course Organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment(s) will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Formative Feedback Opportunity:
Formative feedback is ongoing feedback which monitors learning and is intended to improve performance in the same course, in future courses, and also beyond study.
Formative guidance will be provided to support students in selecting and refining an appropriate challenge scenario.
During the course, students will present their selected Transport and Society Challenge and receive verbal formative feedback on suitability, scope, and alignment with the learning outcomes.
Prior to the submission, students will have a formative feedback session to provide guidance on their final submission. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Critically analyse how transport systems and societal contexts co-produce outcomes.
- Apply systems thinking to model and evaluate transport-society interactions.
- Use futures thinking approaches to develop and critique plausible transport futures (technological and socio-technical) under uncertainty and climate constraints.
- Design and justify evidence-informed, ethically aware, future-proof strategies for addressing transport challenges.
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Reading List
Essential Reading:
Lyons, G. (2004). Transport and society. Transport Reviews, 24(4), 485-509. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144164042000206079
Jones, P., & Lucas, K. (2012). The social consequences of transport decision-making: Clarifying concepts, synthesising knowledge and assessing implications. Journal of Transport Geography, 21, 4-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2012.01.012
Lucas, K., Stokes, G., Bastiaanssen, J., & Burkinshaw, J. (2019). Inequalities in mobility and access in the UK transport system (Evidence review). Government Office for Science.
Auvinen, H., & Tuominen, A. (2014). Future transport systems: Long-term visions and socio-technical transitions. European Transport Research Review, 6, 343-354. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12544-014-0135-3
Chatterjee, K., & Gordon, A. (2006). Planning for an unpredictable future: Transport in Great Britain in 2030. Transport Policy, 13(3), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2005.11.003
Geels, F. W., & Schot, J. (2007). Typology of sociotechnical transition pathways. Research Policy, 36(3), 399-417. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2007.01.003
Department for Transport. (2021). Decarbonising transport: A better, greener Britain. UK Government.
Recommended:
Banister, D. (2008). The sustainable mobility paradigm. Transport Policy, 15(2), 73-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2007.10.005
Lyons, G., & Davidson, C. (2016). Guidance for transport planning and policymaking in the face of an uncertain future. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 88, 104-116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.03.012
Gössling, S. (2016). Urban transport justice. Journal of Transport Geography, 54, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2016.05.002
Docherty, I., Marsden, G., & Anable, J. (2018). The governance of smart mobility. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 115, 114-125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2017.09.012
Givoni, M., Macmillen, J., Banister, D., & Feitelson, E. (2013). From policy measures to policy packages. Transport Reviews, 33(1), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2012.744779
Bedinger, M., Beevers, L., Walker, G. H., Visser-Quinn, A., & McClymont, K. (2020). Urban systems: Mapping interdependencies and outcomes to support systems thinking. Earth's Future, 8(3), e2019EF001389. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019EF001389
Jittrapirom, P., Bekius, F., & Führer, K. (2023). Visioning future transport systems with an integrated robust and generative framework. Scientific Reports, 13, 4316. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-30818-2
Soria-Lara, J. A., Ariza-Álvarez, A., Aguilera-Benavente, F., Cascajo, R., Arce-Ruiz, R. M., López, C., & Gómez-Delgado, M. (2021). Participatory visioning for building disruptive future scenarios for transport and land use planning. Journal of Transport Geography, 90, 102907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2020.102907
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Climate Change,Mobility Justice,Sustainability,Systems Thinking,Transport Futures,Policy |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Pavlos Tafidis
Tel:
Email: ptafidis@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Yasmine Lewis
Tel:
Email: yasmine.lewis@ed.ac.uk |
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