Dr Brendan Doody

School of Geography and Planning

Research Associate in Urban Robotics

Brendan Doody
Profile picture of Brendan Doody
Profile

Brendan is a human geographer examining transformations in mobility and urban life. His research focuses on everyday cultures and politics, emerging innovations and markets, and urban governance and experimentation. He is currently a research associate on the Economic and Social Research Council funded project, ‘Experimenting with robots as a new urban infrastructure’. Brendan obtained his PhD in Geography from the Department of Geography, Durham University, under the auspices of a Commonwealth Scholarship. He also holds a Bachelor of Recreation Management (Parks) and Masters of Applied Science at Lincoln University, New Zealand.

Prior to this role, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Transport Studies Unit (TSU), University of Oxford (2017-2022) and the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge (2015-2017). In the TSU, he was involved in projects on vehicle automation, electrification and sharing. These projects explored in different ways how the (potential) adoption and use of such innovations might be affected by existing everyday and institutional practices, the design of interfaces, technologies and infrastructures, and different business models. At the University of of Cambridge, he 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, Brendan worked as a social scientist on energy, climate change and natural hazards at GNS Science in Wellington, New Zealand.

Research interests

Brendan is interested in understanding transformations in mobility and urban life. His research 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 practices.
  2. Emerging innovations and markets: The social, cultural and environmental implications of innovations in consumption, market and mobility practices (e.g., automation; artificial intelligence (AI); electrification; interfaces; robotics; 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.