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Staff Profile

Dr Brendan Doody

Lecturer in Digital Planning

  • Email: brendan.doody@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape
    Henry Daysh Building
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

Introduction

I am human geographer interested in examining transformations in mobility and urban life. My research focuses on understanding the practices, materialities and environments that sustain and change movements, lifestyles and cities. At present, I am exploring how robotics, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping these domains and how they might be regulated and planned for in ways that align with public interests.


Previous Roles

My current work builds on two recent projects. First, my British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2019-2022), Changing drivers: Knowing, imagining and shaping autonomous car users, carried out in the Transport Studies Unit (TSU), University of Oxford. Second, my role as a postdoctoral researcher in School of Geography and Planning, University of Sheffield (2023-2025). Here, I worked on the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project, Experimenting with robots as a new urban infrastructure.


Prior to these roles, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the TSU, University of Oxford (2017-2018) and the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge (2015-2017). In the TSU, I explored how the (potential) adoption and use of electric and shared vehicles might be affected by existing everyday practices, the design of technologies and infrastructures, and different regulations and business models. At the University of of Cambridge, I examined how emerging social, technical and consumption trends were shaping material demands and carbon emissions associated with the production and use of cars. From 2008-2011, I worked as a social scientist on energy, climate change and natural hazards at GNS Science in Wellington, New Zealand.


Current Roles and Responsibilities

I am a Lecturer in Digital Planning and Academic Misconduct Officer.


Qualifications

  • PhD (Unconditional) in Human Geography, Durham University (2016) The low carbon commute: Rethinking the habits that connect home and work in Auckland and London through John Dewey's pragmatism.
  • Masters of Applied Science (MApplSc), Lincoln University, New Zealand (2008).
  • Bachelor of Recreation Management (BRM), Lincoln University, New Zealand (2003).


Student Drop-in Hour

Wednesdays at 1200-1300 (during term time). Email for a meeting online and/or at another time.

Research

Research Overview

My research examines transformations in mobility and urban life. It is focused in three areas:


1. Everyday cultures and politics: Theorising and researching how material, technological, bodily, expressive, and political dimensions enable, constrain and shape everyday and institutional practices.


2. Emerging innovations and markets: The social, cultural, and environmental implications of innovations in consumption, market and mobility practices (e.g., artificial intelligence (AI); automation; robotics; electrification; interfaces; sharing) and the strategies, tools and infrastructures required to support these developments.


3. Urban governance and experimentation: Examining regulations, policies and interventions aimed at addressing environmental sustainability, encouraging growth, and supporting the development of new modes of urban life.


Recent Projects

Experimenting with robots as a new urban infrastructure (Economic Social Research Council (ESRC): 2023-2025): explored what impacts public mobile robots might have on urban life and how they might be regulated and planned for in ways that align with public interests. It involved comparative case-studies of the UK, Japan, Australia, and the USA, and a global mapping and review of robotic initiatives.


Changing drivers: Knowing, imagining and shaping autonomous car users (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship: 2019-2022): examined how developments in vehicle automation are shaped by cultures, institutions and everyday practices. More specifically, it explored the ways in which developers and manufacturers sought to know and imagine users and the techniques and designs employed to enhance ‘public acceptance’.


Vehicle-To-Grid Oxford (V2GO) (Innovate UK: 2018-2021): developed, trialed and evaluated potential business models for UK fleet operators' use of electric vehicles and their suitability for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charging.


Go Ultra Low Oxford (GULO) (Office of Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV): 2017-2019): involved a trial of five different on-street electric vehicle (EV) charging technologies across 28 locations on public streets in Oxford. The aim of the trial was understand which technologies might support charging for citizens living in housing without access to a private off-street parking space.


TEMPEST (Research Council of Norway: 2016-2020): explored what might be necessary to encourage citizens to move away from using privately owned cars to shared car schemes. Case studies in the UK, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway examined how different contexts, lifestyles and policies supported and/or discouraged car sharing.


Completed PhDs Supervised

Dr Adam Packer (with Gillian Rose), School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, 2023 - Exploring 'smart citizenship' as a socio-technical ecology: the case of Oxfordshire, UK.


Dr Simone Cooper-Searle (with Julian Allwood), Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, 2018 - Industry and policy implementation of material efficiency.

Teaching

Module Convenor

I currently convene one module on the Planning degree programmes within the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape: TCP1026: Understanding Place: Methods and Perspectives (Year 1).

 

Contributor

APL2007 Creative and Visual Research Methods

TCP2027 Research skills

TCP2031 Digital Civics

TCP3099 Undergraduate Dissertation

TCP8099 Postgraduate Dissertation

TCP8034 Planning & Sustainability

 

Personal Tutoring

I am currently personal tutor for Stage 1 students on Architecture and Urban Planning BA Honours. Previously, I have been tutor for Stage 3 students on Geography and Urban Planning BA Honours.

 

Student Drop-in Hour

Wednesdays at 1200-1300 (during term time). Email for a meeting online and/or at another time.

Publications