Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Welcome to the Green Gown Award winning Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton!
This podcast explores the greatest and most wicked problem that is sustainability, whilst looking at how we are collectively addressing this critical global challenge.
Sustainability needs to be addressed by understanding how the economy, society, culture, politics and environment intersect, and this is the focus that informs each episode of the Meliora podcast.
In each episode, host Professor Simon Kemp and guest hosts are joined by a variety of guests, including academics, students, staff, researchers, alumni, community groups and business leaders.
The aim of the podcast is to shine a light on the vast range of topics surrounding sustainability and to allow listeners to learn about the critical challenges we face, as well as how they can be part of the solution. We also ensure our fantastic students have the opportunity to share their brilliant work with the world.
Podcast host: Professor Simon Kemp, Deputy Director of the Sustainability & Resilience Institute, University of Southampton
Podcast editors: Jack Dinham, Ellie Howell, Mya Harvey, Lily Killner, Sophie Green, Libby Kale, School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton
Podcast communications: Tyler Domone-Hollands, Hannah Parish, Alexander Ayerst, Maya Stevens, University of Southampton
Please do get in touch to discuss this podcast and any of the issues we raise by emailing sri@soton.ac.uk
Follow us on instagram and X: @meliorapodcast
Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Barnaby Williams: Transport infrastructure in Southampton - is mobility accessible?
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Barnaby Williams (BA Geography) joins us to discuss his research project "To what extent does the transport infrastructure in Southampton, UK, promote accessible mobility?".
A huge part of living in society today is movement – flows of people across space are everywhere. Transport infrastructures are vital in supporting mobility. This project, focusing on the UK city of Southampton, uses a triangulated research design to scrutinise the impacts of transport infrastructure on accessibility.
The results from the online questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews and auto-ethnography show that the perceptions and experiences of the research participants paint an incredibly mixed picture of mobility in Southampton. Factors including other members of society, the quality of transport infrastructure itself and accessibility-motivated measures in the public sphere were all shown to have an influence on mobility, however not always in a positive way. There is a definite need for further research – this study has uncovered a wide range of areas that influence accessible mobility, but with the ever-increasing urban population, such results as this may change as time passes.
This research relates to SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), also touching on SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), demonstrating in part the complexity of mobility as a process, and its multi-disciplinary nature.
Episode Guest: Barnaby Williams, BA Geography
Episode Host: Prof Simon Kemp
Producer and Editor: Mya Harvey
The Meliora Podcast Student Research Symposium is part of the 2026 Student Takeover Season where we celebrate the fantastic sustainability research work of our Undergraduate Students.
