Dr Nicola Spurling

Senior Lecturer

Research Overview

Nicola is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology. Her current research (2022-) explores the emergence of ‘life without children’ auto/biographical practices (e.g. memoirs, communities and podcasts) since c2010, and the new standpoints of ‘childless due to circumstance’, ‘childless not by choice’ and ‘unexpectedly childfree’. At a moment of significant demographic change, when growing numbers of people live entire adult lives without biological children, sociology has yet to recalibrate its conceptual tools. Her work examines the experiential knowledge being developed by the growing demographic identifying with these standpoints, explores for whom and how this knowledge matters, how it travels across social and institutional contexts, and how taking these knowledges seriously reframes research agendas concerned with the life course and social futures. Her work shifts attention from how childless/free ness is arrived at to expanding understanding of the decades that follow, the knowledge that is emerging from these lives and its potential contribution to pressing social challenges.

Nicola was Director of the Centre for Mobilities Research from 2020-2025 and is known for her contributions to Mobilities scholarship and Sociology of Consumption (2010-2022). Her research, funded by the ESRC, The Scottish Government, the AHRC, Design United (The Netherlands) and the EPSRC has brought auto/biographical, oral history, archival and social futures methods to the study of social change and sustainability. Her projects include Interventions in Practices; Mobile Utopias; Everyday Futures; and, DecarboN8 - A Network for the place-based decarbonisation of transport. This research is published in leading journals, book chapters in interdisciplinary edited collections and the co-edited book Sustainable Practices (Routledge Advances in Sociology, 2013).

Beyond academia, she has prioritised community engagement, policy advocacy and intervention towards beneficial change for environment and society, through invited roles as Commissioner on the National Commission on Travel Demand 2017-2019, and as Founder and Chair of the DecarboN8 Stakeholder Reference Group from 2019-2022. This work was underpinned by collaborations with ThinkTanks, Policy, Industry and Community partners. She is now developing new networks related to her current work.

Follow the Autobiography!
Oral presentation

Want to get to know the future?
Invited talk

How to explore and intervene in everyday futures
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Concito
Visiting an external academic institution

Art Practice and Auto/biography for environmental mobilities research
Invited talk

Mobilities and Futures in the Social Sciences
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Five Ways With Mobilities and Futures
Invited talk

Linköping University, Department of Thematic Studies
Visiting an external academic institution

Mobilities Research 20 Years On
Invited talk

Autobiographical (Im)mobilities: Possibilities for the intra and intergenerational mobilities of 'life without children' autobiographies
Invited talk

Academy Mobility Humanities, Konkuk University, Seoul
Visiting an external academic institution

Auto/biography, Mobilities and the Climate Emergency
Participation in conference - Academic

Climate Emergency Moblities Symposium
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

MoHu (Padua) and CeMoRe (lancaster) Mobilities Workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Intergenerational (Im)mobilities
Invited talk

T2M 2021 Conference
Invited talk

DecarboN8 International Conference: Real Zero in a Hurry
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

What does it take to decarbonise mobility?
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Tactical Urbanism, Everyday Life and Sustainable Mobility Solutions
Invited talk

The Hub as Intervention for Low Carbon Mobility Futures
Invited talk

Thinking on the Move
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Social Futures: The View from Lancaster
Invited talk

Managing Waste and the Circular Economy
Invited talk

Making Space for the Car at Home
Invited talk

Beyond Behaviour Change and the Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, Melbourne
Visiting an external academic institution

Sociology (Journal)
Editorial activity

Space in Use: dwelling in days, weeks, seasons and decades
Invited talk

Institute for Transport Studies, Leeds University (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Workshop 'Dwelling in the Utopian Everyday'
Invited talk

Utopia Fair
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

Making and Unmaking Space for the Car: infrastructure in practice
Invited talk

Reconfiguring Everyday Practices for a Post-Carbon World (Event)
Membership of committee

Invited talk at Energy Technologies Institute Event, 'Options, Choices and Actions on Low Carbon Energy for Local Authorities'
Invited talk

If the Walls Could Talk
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

Exploring the Peaks: Energy demand and the changing rhythms of daily life
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar

Mobility Practice Bundles: Exploring the relationship between everyday and professional practices
Invited talk

Sustainability|Social Practices|Policy
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

Naomi Hammett

Naomi Hammett

PhD student

Xi Tan

Xi Tan

PhD student

  • CeMoRe - Centre for Mobilities Research
  • Institute for Social Futures Fellow