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Alison Stenning

@alisonstenning.bsky.social

7K followers 1.2K following 3.3K posts

Geographer - Professor - Mum - Playing - #playstreets - Cycling - #kidicalmass - #WarOnCars - Walking - Noticing - Green - North Tyneside - North Shields - UK

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · Nov 9

Hello 👋 I’m here for the chat about (geographies of) (urban) play and everyday mobility, esp children’s, along with neighbourhoods and community; bits on austerity, class & social change; climate & environment; but also the north-east of England (esp Tyneside); and some higher education too.

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Reposted by Alison Stenning

The Ranty Highwayman @rantyhighwayman.bsky.social · 22h

Maybe road building will work this time.

Kim McGuinness @kimmcguinness.bsky.social · 1d

Moor Farm roundabout on the A19 needs an upgrade!

Fixing it will:

🏘️ Unlock thousands of new homes
🚑 Make it quicker and easier to access the hospital at Cramlington
🚘 Ease traffic for thousands each day

@emmafoodymp.bsky.social and I are pushing this hard and will continue to until it’s sorted!

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 13h

Have just been (virtually) exploring the beaches and archipelago. Good to hear it’s walking/cycling friendly too.

Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 13h

Tove Jansson is very much on the itinerary! Thanks for the other tips.

Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 16h

Yes, thinking maybe a week or a bit less, with a few days by a lake too.

Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 16h

Looking at the ferry from Stockholm!

Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 16h

Helsinki for a summer holiday? Yes? No? Ideas? Thank you!

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 17h

It’s fabulous. Perfect for the spot.

Reposted by Alison Stenning

Cool Bike Art @coolbikeart1.bsky.social · 18h

Meanwhile, I've got almost a year without getting my shoelace wrapped around the pedal arm...

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 19h

A new mini-mural from Anthony Downie on an unloved corner of Brewhouse Bank, coming up from North Shields’ Fish Quay.

A mural by Anthony Downie with shadows and shade of a warehouse door, fencing, roofs and bollards (one bent), in blues and oranges. Original seen here online: https://www.adillustration.co.uk/?pgid=jl7xbv773-197546f8-9432-4528-9613-f487f3a1c7fd

Anthony Downie’s mural in context, with rubble, rubbish and weeds, a Larry’s Fishcakes sign, barbed wire, a telegraph pole, a brick wall, and half a sign saying Brewhouse Bank.

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 19h

Any “approved fall-type beverage”!

Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 19h

Hoegh Borealis entering and being guided up the Tyne by tugs Svitzer Cecilia and Tyne in a pretty low tide.

Hoegh Borealis entering the mouth of the Tyne, between the piers, and heading behind Pen Bal Crag and Tynemouth Priory

Hoegh Borealis being guided up the Tyne with the Black Middens visible across the river

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 19h

Yeah, need a bit of motivation at this time of the year. Let us know if you get out - and where you go!

Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 20h

I’m doing this autumn’s #CoffeeneuringChallenge2025, for the first time. Seven bike rides with coffee over 6ish weeks. Good motivation to get out for more than commuting.

First ride today to Tynemouth Longsands - the sun was supposed to be out. Swallowed a fly, spotted migrating geese.

A cup of coffee on a table and my bike leaning on a fence above Tynemouth Longsands, with the North Sea in the distance.

The basic rules of coffeeneuring:

• between October 11 through November 24, 2025,
• ride your bike 7 times,
• to at least 6 different places (you can repeat 1!)
• at least 2 miles round trip every time,
• max 2 rides per week,
• drink 7 total cups of coffee (or another approved fall-type beverage), and
• document your coffeeneuring (either photos, Strava tracks, journal entries, control card, etc.) just in case the Coffeeneuring Challenge Committee and the Intern (yes, the Intern's back and still trying hard!) ever conduct an audit.

More here https://chasingmailboxes.com/2025/09/29/coffeeneuring-challenge-2025-youre-only-15-once/

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Reposted by Alison Stenning

A. Zivarts @nondriver.bsky.social · 1d

At a transportation research conference that is still probably about 90% dudes. We miss so much in planning and engineering our communities when everyone in the room has similar experiences of how people interact with you in public space.

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 1d

Indeed!

Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 1d

Just come across this; looks like a great open access volume exploring urban children & home, education, family, play, streets, and more.

UCL Discovery @ucldiscovery.bsky.social · 3d

Open Access UCL Research: Urban Childhoods: Growing up in inequality and hope discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10...

Urban Childhoods: Growing up in inequality and hope - UCL Discovery

UCL Discovery is UCL's open access repository, showcasing and providing access to UCL research outputs from all UCL disciplines.

discovery.ucl.ac.uk

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Reposted by Alison Stenning

Colin McFarlane @colinmcfarlane.bsky.social · 1d

Some thoughts on what what crisis is doing to the urban imagination - short piece as part of a collection in Dialogues in Urban Research: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Crisis and the urban imagination - Colin McFarlane, 2025

What are ideas like ‘polycrisis’ doing to how we think and research the urban? How might we ensure that discourses and conditions of polycrises do not erode our...

journals.sagepub.com

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Reposted by Alison Stenning

Unofficial BBCNews (UK) Bot @bbcnews-uk-rss.bsky.social · 2d

Thousands more university jobs cut as financial crisis deepens

University workers will vote on national strike action this month over a 1.4% pay offer made in the summer.

www.bbc.com

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 1d

And along the Fish Quay -

A piece of pop-up street art from Prefab77

Tynemouth Ice Ltd, with blue and red walls, windows and doors.

Marcus Reed’s Glory mural on the side of the Salt Market

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 1d

A morning on the Tyne -

Beautiful light on the mouth of the Tyne

Herd Groyne lighthouse, South Shields, with the mouth of the Tyne and seagulls

Herd Groyne lighthouse, South Shields, with the mouth of the Tyne and a ship

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Reposted by Alison Stenning

Greens Organise @greensorganise.bsky.social · 1d

Let’s make different political choices.

For decades now British people have been told to simply swallow austerity. They’ve been told that the NHS needs cuts, that libraries need closing and that child poverty can’t be tackled.

Greens say: Bullshit!
Join the Green Party today.

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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 1d

A woman in high-heeled boots!

That’s surely the last straw.

Reposted by Alison Stenning

Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 1d

Published today on #WorldHomelessDay: my book Debt Trap Nation – a deep dive into how government policy is driving families into homelessness & debt.

All royalties to @seacharity.bsky.social 💜

Families aren't failing. They're being failed.

📖 www.agendapub.com/page/detail/...

#DebtTrapNation

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Reposted by Alison Stenning

The Green Party of England & Wales @greenparty.org.uk · 2d

We can't keep up...

Yesterday we reached 90,000 members. Today we're at 95,000.

Be part of the Green surge. Join the Green Party today ⤵️

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Reposted by Alison Stenning

Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 2d

By me this week - the happiest thing I've got to report of late, with a glorious trip over the summer to Montreal

"Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport."

www.economist.com/internationa...

Forget EVs. Cycling is revolutionising transport

Pedal power is booming, spinning up a new culture war

www.economist.com

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