IN-CITU
Research type
Research Study
Full title
IN-CITU: Interactions between Cognitive Impairment & Transport in Urban Environments
IRAS ID
309095
Contact name
James Fletcher
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
New social and cognitive scientific approaches are recognising that people and places as indivisible assemblages which manifest cognition. These understandings challenge dementia research’s traditional humanism (treating people as exceptional entities) and neuroreductionism (treating brains as cognitive supercomputers). However, these traditional ideas, though undermined by new insights, still permeate current “dementia-friendly” strategies. Dementia-friendly environments are a popular public health response to dementia, adapting infrastructures like public transport to minimise disabilities, but they commonly assume that agentic persons inhabit inactive spaces. Resulting initiatives presume that architectural refinement will maximise individuals’ intrinsic cognitive capacities, overlooking the complex distribution of cognition throughout evolving atmospheric spaces. They also often lack user perspectives and sophisticated theoretical grounding. In response, I will combine cutting-edge social and cognitive scholarships to explore cognition-environment relations through a sensory ethnography of Greater Manchester’s public transport, a key target for local government’s programme of dementia-friendly initiatives. I will accompany 25 passengers with dementia on between 1 and 5 of their usual journeys. I will document these journeys through interviewing, fieldnotes, photography and mapping. Participants will be encouraged to capture photographs and videos for an exhibition across the transport network if they wish to. An exceptionally rich interactive dataset will be generated, comprised of audio-visual media, sensory ethnographic data and maps, and this will be made available to future researchers. The project will challenge outdated assumptions in dementia research and policy, developing proposals for improving each. It aligns with policy priorities and will propose service improvements in collaboration with key stakeholders. It will generate an unprecedented open-access dataset for analysing dementia-friendliness and cognition-environment relations, and pioneer methods for inclusive ecological dementia research.
IN-CITU showed how different political forces within and beyond cities shape the daily experiences of passengers with dementia. It found that efforts to make transport systems more efficient should be tempered against recognition that efficiency is not the most important attribute of transport from the perspectives of some passengers. It found that transport alone was rarely an isolated issue for passengers, whose difficulties typically owed to both the network and wider problems across the city, such as fear of anti-social behaviour and high-street retail closures.
Has the registry been updated to include summary results?: No
If yes - please enter the URL to summary results:
If no – why not?: The study is not registered on a public registry
Did you follow your dissemination plan submitted in the IRAS application form (Q A51)?: Pending
If yes, describe or provide URLs to disseminated materials:
If pending, date when dissemination is expected: 06/11/2024
If no, explain why you didn't follow it:
Have participants been informed of the results of the study?: Yes
If yes, describe and/or provide URLs to materials shared and how they were shared: Participants were informed in person during final journeys
If pending, date when feedback is expected:
If no, explain why they haven't:
Have you enabled sharing of study data with others?: Yes
If yes, describe or provide URLs to how it has been shared: Data statements in publications make data available on request
If no, explain why sharing hasn't been enabled:
Have you enabled sharing of tissue samples and associated data with others?: No
If yes, describe or provide a URL:
If no, explain why: NA
Submitted on: 20/09/2024REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
22/NW/0142
Date of REC Opinion
8 Aug 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion