Scales of Justice The case studies highlighted the need for any mobility-based initiative to work on multiple scales. Sheller (2018) stresses that mobility justice occurs at multiple scales and three of the scales relate directly to the 15-Minute City: the bodily, built environment, and extended urban scales. The bodily scale is similar to the Capability Approaches (Pereira et al., 2017; Sen, 1979) in that individuals have different capacities to move through space. A combination of factors, such as class, gender, race, sexuality, and physical ability, all combine to determine the ease or difficulty of this movement, and are collectively known as network capital. The built environment scale relates to infrastructure and land use decisions that shape the physical structure of the city. This is the most in line with 15-Minute City principles and Sheller (2018)
Built Environment Centre vs Suburb
Local vs City-Wide
Bodily
Individual vs Infrastructure
Scales & Tensions
Extended Urban Figure 19: The scales of the 15-Minute City are sources of tension and potential conflict
calls for equal investment for all modes and a minimum level of accessibility for all users. The extended urban scale deals with the spatial segregation of cities based on levels of mobility. Urban elites are able to accumulate more network capital, allowing for greater access to the city, both in terms of movement and settlement. Using the term ‘spatial secession’, Sheller (2018) describes the practice of affluent residents migrating into more desirable spaces or neighbourhoods to the exclusion of the less advantaged. These three scales and the actors within them are a source of tension with urban spaces. In relation to the 15-Minute City, these tensions are manifested in three ways: individuals vs infrastructure, centre vs suburbs, and local vs city-wide decision making (see Fig. 19).
Individual vs Infrastructure The 15-Minute City relies on the transformation of the built environment to enable increased mobility. Providing daily needs within a short walk or cycle trip, combined with more infrastructure for active transportation, will no doubt have a positive impact on the mobility of many users. But simply providing a new Neighbourhood Activity Centre in a suburb of Melbourne is not enough if access is deterred by large parking lots or fast-moving traffic (Whitzman et al., 2013). This lack of network capital is being addressed in Toronto through Scarborough Cycles (2021), a network of community bike hubs in the eastern suburbs. Each hub uses programs and events to promote cycling culture and address the specific barriers to suburban cycling. The programs target physical (i.e. lack of infrastructure, poor transit, not owning a car), knowledge-based 47
