An anthropologist among the transport specialists

Abstract

Social science knowledge can be communicated to encourage transport professionals to think positively about the insights derived from qualitative research. Social science asks different kinds of questions and makes different types of connections in the field to those conventionally asked by engineers. Reflexive social science techniques can make professionals aware of the assumptions that underpin and drive their policy and practice. Understanding national cultural conditions that influence attitudes and capacities towards low carbon transport and ideas of development are key to working across boundaries and to building a truly global agenda for transport thinking. Social science methodologies are well suited to developing such understandings. This research was funded under the Department for International Development’s Policy Research Fund