Wojciech Kębłowski

Wojciech focuses on three main themes. First, he is interested in bringing critical social theory and decolonial theory to transport geography. He studies the political economy and governance of “sustainable” transport policies, transport in/formality, and publicness of public transport. He is particularly curious about practices of fare evasion and control, and the policy of fare abolition, otherwise known as fare-free public transport.

Second, he explores the urban geography of the global China and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This involves looking into how the global China and the BRI materialise “on the ground” in two localities in Eastern Poland — Narewka and Małaszewicze — where important logistical hubs at the European Border are located, narrated as “gateways to Europe”. Wojciech scrutinises what local interests the BRI represents and opposes, who advances and contests it, how it relates to local economy and urban development.

Third, Wojciech studies the diverse alternatives to the capitalist mode of producing urban space and society. These include practices inspired by the notion of circular economy and degrowth, and various examples of citizen participation, for instance the policy of participatory budgeting. He explores how, why and for whom these “alternatives” emerge, and how they are transferred and “mobilised” between urban contexts.

Wojciech's research is truly international, with projects completed and ongoing in diverse settings across the global North (in particular in Benelux, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden), East (Estonia, Poland) and South (Brazil, Cuba).