Urban mobilities and power: Social exclusion by design in the city

This chapter takes as its point of departure the emerging field of mobilities design within the wider research area of the ‘new mobilities turn’. The chapter connects the field of mobilities design with a relational understanding of place and a networked sense of power. Inspired by actor–network theory (ANT), the chapter discusses how designs and materialities are connected to human and non-human agencies. The notion of dark design is part of this analytical framework, as is the notion of mobile subject types. The chapter is predominantly theoretical but will explore the case of homeless people in the city as an empirical example of how power and exclusion are manifested through a city’s design. These ‘unruly and mobile subjects’ are targeted by strategic decisions and general policies, as well as by detailed manifestations of micro-designs, such as spikes, leaning benches, and many other examples of mobility injustice.