Nicola Spurling is a Senior Lecturer renowned for her contributions to Mobilities scholarship and Sociology of consumption through her research leadership in the fields of Sustainable Practices, Everyday Futures, Decarbonising Mobility and Autobiographical Mobilisation. Her research has international reach and significance, it is widely cited and has informed policy discussions in the UK, the EU and Australia.

Her research has been funded by the ESRC, The Scottish Government, the AHRC, Design United (The Netherlands) and the EPSRC for her projects on Interventions in Practices; Mobile Utopias; Everyday Futures; and, DecarboN8 - A Network for the place-based decarbonisation of transport. She has published journal articles in leading Sociology and Environmental journals, book chapters in interdisciplinary edited collections and was co-editor of the widely cited book Sustainable Practices (Routledge Advances in Sociology, 2013).

Underpinned by an ethos of Public Sociology, much of her work develops and translates ideas from social theory, ethnographic, autobiographical and participatory knowledges into interventions and actions. Nicola has produced a range of non-academic outputs through her research including policy reports, websites, workshops, sociological films, exhibitions, picture books, design prototypes and frameworks.

Through her teaching and supervision she has supported the exploration of a range of environment, culture and society challenges underpinned by these values and approaches, including recent seminar discussions for students with external guests on ‘What role for sociologists in environmental change?’, and PhD student projects by Harriet Phipps on ‘Reimagining Young Peoples’ Participation in Food Circuits of Care’ and Abi Lafbery on ‘Becoming With Wild Swimming: knowledges, environmentalisms, and the implications for swimmers’ health and ecological health’.

Beyond academia, she has prioritised community engagement, policy advocacy and intervention towards beneficial change for environment and society, through invited roles as Commissioner on the National Commission on Travel Demand 2017-2019, and as Founder and Chair of the DecarboN8 Stakeholder Reference Group from 2019-2022. Such work has provided Nicola with a deep understanding of policy and professional practices; and, has underpinned her collaborations with ThinkTanks, Policy, Industry and Community partners.

Qualitative and ethnographic empirical projects on aspects of climate, ecological and socio-cultural change. What new and emerging socio-cultural practices are happening around the world in relation to changing climates and environments? and, what are their implications for human health and ecological health? What new practices of custodianship and care are needed, how can this be achieved? What are the losses - which practices need to disappear, how can this be researched? how will such change be differentially experienced, and how to advocate for it? how can people and communities be supported? What knowledge already exists and where do we find it? How is life course changing in a context of changing climates, for whom? and, for what? what new issues does this place on the agenda, and how can they be researched? Methodological interests: creative, ethnographic, auto/biographical, intergenerational, more-than-human and participatory methodologies. Archival research, mobile methods.

I came to Lancaster University as a Senior Research Associate in 2014. I took up position as Anniversary Lecturer in 2016, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2020.