Mobilities‐Based Urban Planning in the North of England

Abstract

This article explores the suggestion by architect Will Alsop that the future prosperity and influence of Northern English cities will be best achieved through merging into one discrete urban entity facilitated by the M62 motorway corridor. The article will locate Alsop’s plan within the concerns of literature drawn from the mobilities strand of social science research, as well as architectural theories of urbanism and contemporaneous governmental policy. The article concludes by looking at the Northern English region and Alsop’s plan within a national, European and global context.

Key Words:

• Northern England
• cities
• motorways
• non‐places
• place reflexivity
• polycentric regional planning

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. Particular thanks to Roger Burrows, Nicholas Gane and Phil Stanworth for their comments on earlier drafts.