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This chapter examines the torsions and blind spots that structure the contemporary debate on the politics and policy of aviation. It also generates different scenarios for the future of air travel, which can help to unblock the current impasse about the perceived costs and benefits of aviation and its attendant infrastructural needs.

This chapter characterises and evaluates the competing frames that organise the contested realities of air transport. By mapping out the current fault lines of aviation politics and policy, the chapter is also able to delineate four main scenarios regarding the future of aviation, which we name the ‘post-carbon’, ‘high-modernist’, ‘market regulation’ and ‘demand management’ projections respectively.

The chapter problematises and criticises the existing literature, policy reports and stakeholder briefings that inform the contemporary standoff in UK aviation policy. It uses the definition of sustainable development as a heuristic device to map and identify the fault lines structuring contemporary debates on aviation futures. It then builds upon this analysis to delimit four different scenarios for the future of flying.

The chapter analyses the contested realities of aviation politics. It re-affirms the political nature of such divisions, which in turn structure the rival understandings of aviation. The analysis suggests that the identified fault lines are constantly reiterated by competing appeals to ambiguous and contradictory evidence-bases or policy frames. Ultimately, the chapter claims that any significant reframing of aviation policy and politics rests on the outcome of political negotiations and persuasion. But it also depends on the broader views of citizens and stakeholders about the future challenges facing society, as well as the way in which governments and affected agents put in place and coordinate the multiple arenas in which a dialogue over the future of aviation can be held. Aviation futures cannot be reduced to the narrow confines of the technical merits or claims surrounding the feasibility of policy instruments.

In this paper I will analyse the nature of the relationship between area and health in cities. Although it has long been known that mortality and morbidity are unevenly distributed within urban environments (Stamp, 1964; Learmonth, 1988) it remains problematic as to how these differences should be explained. In the present paper I will present detailed information on the spatial distibution of mortality, morbidity, and health services in cities and consider the explanations which have been put forward to account for them. Research which has considered this topic covers various fields; medical geography, medical ecology, epidemiology, and sociology, and has utilised numerous methodological approaches, from straightforward mapping techniques to complex multi‐variate analysis. Research has also been carried out across the world. However, because differences in the political and social organisation of cities can have an effect on health, and these structural differences vary from country to country, I have restricted the current review to work carried out in the cities of the developed world as studies are more comparable.

The interwar period was a time of technological and social change. This paper aims to understand how these changes impacted the marketing communication of mobility through the lenses of safety and of the changing place and role of women in society.

The research is based on a review of over 2,000 posters together with visual and textual material from the contemporary specialist press and company brochures, magazine advertisements and promotional film.

As women’s place in society developed during the interwar period, they became travellers and decision makers in their own right. Companies responded to and influenced these changes by encouraging women to take opportunities previously beyond their reach. However, even within this context, women were seen to retain a priority for safety linked to their more traditional societal roles. This message was set within the context of a wider safety communication dependant on the maturity of the mobility technology. Established modes of transport took a connotative approach whilst the new technologies (cars and airlines) were far more explicit in their claims.

The paper provides an approach to understanding the impact of advertisers’ technologies (new or established) on the style and content of their marketing. As such it can be used in other areas besides those discussed in this paper: for example, in a comparison between traditional car engine technologies and emergent “green” alternatives.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first cross-modal comparison of marketing communications by companies representing the majority of key mobilities. Further, whilst there is considerable discussion on topics such as gender and motoring, other sectors (for example, women airline passengers) have been given scant research attention.

Purpose – To examine the cost-effectiveness of UK government policy with respect to the mitigation of carbon emissions from the transport sector.

Methodology/approach – Existing policy as set out by the Department for Transport in Low Carbon Transport: A Greener Future is examined. This document elaborates a Low Carbon Transport Strategy intended to achieve annual emissions savings of 17.7 MtCO2 by 2020. A wide range of policy areas where further action could be taken to reduce carbon emissions are examined and their cost-effectiveness considered.

Findings – Measures that influence behaviour including smarter choices, eco-driving across modes, freight best practice and modest price increases are highly cost-effective. More cost-effective routes to saving 17.7 MtCO2 are identified, as are further cost-effective savings.

Originality/value – It appears that government targets could be delivered and indeed exceeded at lower cost than the Low Carbon Transport Strategy. However, policy development is influenced by a wide range of factors which help to explain why cost-effective measures are not always fully exploited.