You are invited to join the participants of the Defra-funded OxAir project for a virtual ‘open house’ discussion, held this Wednesday, 7th October in honour of Clean Air Week.

The presentation will follow the progress of the project’s participatory ‘Competency Group’; a panel of expert stakeholders comprising Oxford citizens, air quality technicians, social scientists, policy and public health practitioners, navigating the question of how to effectively deploy portable sensors to improve air quality monitoring and management in Oxford city.

This free event, presented by the participants and followed by a Q&A session, will outline the principles of this innovative set of methods, the activities undertaken by the group and the fascinating set of social scientific findings unearthed in the process. It traces our adaptation of the framework for democratising management of environmental controversies originally developed by Sarah Whatmore and colleagues, in their landmark study of flood risk governance in Ryedale. Similarly bringing interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral perspectives into a single, inclusive and equitable conversation, the OxAir Competency Group investigates what non-hierarchical, participatory air quality management might look like for the residents of Oxford city.

This discussion is an attempt to bring awareness and engagement with the OxAir Competency Group to the wider community, and will be of interest to residents in and out of Oxford concerned with local air quality, as well as members of the academic and practitioner communities in environmental governance, human geography, anthropology, sociology, Science and Technology Studies, public health and environmental management.