Our People

Research

Nihan is an economic geographer, specialising in mobility of people and goods, inequalities and access, infrastructure, and work. Her research is based on both qualitative and quantitative methodologies and to date has addressed the following concerns:

• Political economy of infrastructure and labour markets
• Mobility-related economic exclusions, gendered inequalities and work
• Governance and equity implications of innovations
• Mobility of goods, globalisation and sustainability

In addition to working on research projects funded by the European Commission, the UK Research Councils, the Swedish International Development Agency, the British Council and the British Academy, Nihan has held academic awards from Wolfson College, Alan Nesta Ferguson Foundation, and the LSE Award Schemes. She is the winner of the 2015 OECD-ITF Young Researcher of the Year Award and was named as a World Social Science Fellow in Sustainable Urbanisation by the International Social Science Council in 2014.

Publications

Books

Akyelken, N. (2024) Women, Work and Mobilities. Abingdon: Routledge.

Journal articles

Arora, N. and Akyelken, N. (2026) Using financial diaries as a spatial–affective method: tracing everyday economies of labour. Finance and Space 3(1) 2646887

Akyelken, N., Arora, N., Ballard, R., Sekwatlakwatla, M., & Genç, D. (2026, May). Infrastructures to work: Tracing the labour footprint of large urban infrastructure projects. Geoforum, 171, 104545.

Akyelken, N., Beyazit E., Kayaoglu, A., Yildirim, S. and Tanyeri, F. N. (2023) Economic vulnerabilities and pandemic mobilities: Mobility of low-income populations in İstanbul during the Covid-19 pandemic. Habitat International 141 102903.

Akyelken, N. and Hopkins, D. (2022). Researching mobility in times of immobility. Transport Reviews 43(1): 1-4.

Akyelken, N. (2020) Transport for women: who decides what women need? Transport Reviews 40(6): 687-688 (Editorial piece)

Akyelken, N. (2020) Urban conceptions of economic inequalities. Regional Studies 54(6): 863-872

Akyelken, N. (2020) Living with urban floods in Metro Manila: a gender approach to mobilities, work and climatic events. Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 27(11): 1580-1601

Cohen, T., Stilgoe, J., Stares, S., Akyelken, N. et al. (2020) A constructive role for social science in the development of automated vehicles. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 6 (July 2020): 1-8.

Schafran, A., McDonald, C., Morales, E.L., Akyelken, N. and Acuto, M. (2018) Replacing the services sector and the three-sector theory: Urbanization and control as economic sectors. Regional Studies 52(12): 1708-1719.

Akyelken, N., Givoni, M., Salo, M., Judl, J., Plepys, A., Anderton, K. and Koskela, S. (2018) The importance of institutions and policy settings for car sharing: Evidence fromthe UK, Israel, Sweden and Finland. European Journal of Transport and Infrastructure Research 18(4): 340-359.

Schafran, A., McDonald, C., Morales, E.L., Akyelken, N. and Acuto, M. (2018) Replacing the services sector and the three-sector theory: Urbanization and control as economic sectors. Regional Studies, DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2018.1464136

Akyelken, N., Banister, D. and Givoni, M. (2018) Sustainability of shared mobility in London: the dilemma for governance. Sustainability, 10(2): 1-13.

Akyelken, N. (2017) Mobility-related economic exclusion: accessibility and commuting patterns in industrial zones in Turkey. Social Inclusion, 5(4): 175-182.

Akyelken, N. (2015) Infrastructure development and employment: the case of Turkey. Regional Studies, 49(8): 1360-1373.

Schwanen, T., Lucas, K., Akyelken, N., Solsona, D.C., Carrasco, J.A. and Neitens, T. (2015) Rethinking the links between social exclusion and transport disadvantage through the lens of social capital. Transportation Research: Policy and Practice, 74: 123-135.

Akyelken, N. and Keller, H. (2014) Framing the nexus of globalisation, logistics and manufacturing. Transport Reviews, 34(6): 674-690.

Akyelken, N. (2013) Development and gendered mobilities: narratives from the women of Mardin, Turkey. Mobilities, 8(3): 424-439.

Book chapters

Hopkins, D. and Akyelken, N. (2022) MotherTruckers? The Gendered Work of Freight and Logistics. In: Wright, T. Budd, K. and Ison, S. Women, Work and Transport Emerald Publishing. pp. 71-86.

Lucas, K., Akyelken, N. and Stanley, J. (2019) Social assessment of transport projects in Global South cities using community perceptions of needs. In: Hickman, et al. (eds). A Companion to Transport, Space and Equity. Edward Elgar. pp. 180-195.

Akyelken, N. (2015) Innovations, policies and ideas – an urban mobility perspective. In: Condie, J. and Cooper, A. M. (eds.) Dialogues of Sustainable Urbanisation: Social Science Research and Transitions to Urban Contexts. University of Western Sydney.

Akyelken, N. (2013) Finance and investment. Chapter 9 in, Givoni, M. and Banister, D. (eds.) Moving Towards Low Carbon Mobility. Edward Elgar. pp. 129-147.

Akyelken, N. and Anderton, K. (2013) Changing the rules of the game: what is yours is mine! Social aspects of sharing practices in mobility. In, ICEIRD Conference Proceedings. pp. 311-323.

Akyelken, N. (2011) Distance in the existence of political pathologies: rationalized transport policies and trade. In, Button, K. and A. Reggiani (eds.) Transportation and Economic Development Challenges. Edward Elgar. pp. 72-84.

Bonilla, D. and Akyelken, N. (2011) Vision. In, Helmreich, S. and H. Keller (eds.) FREIGHTVISION – Sustainable European Freight Transport 2050: Forecast, Vision and Policy Recommendation. Springer. pp. 127-134.

Published reports

Akyelken, N. (2016) Organize sanayi bölgeleri’nde kadin istihdam yapisi ve erişilebilirlik : Afyonkarahisar ve Şanlıurfa (Turkish). Washington, D.C. : World Bank Group.

Akyelken, N., Anderton, K., Givoni, M., Kossela, S., Plepys, A., Salo, M., et al. (2015) Servicizing policy packages for the mobility sector. Deliverable 8.2 of Servicizing Policy for a Resource Efficient Economy (SPREE) – Funded by the European Commission 7th RTD Programme. Tel Aviv, Israel.

Akyelken, N. and Anderton, K. (2015) UK Mobility Report. European Commission. Deliverable 7.2 of the Servicizing Policy for a Resource Efficient Economy (SPREE) – Funded by the European Commission 7th RTD Programme. Oxford, UK.

Akyelken, N., Anderton, K., Mont, O., Plepys, A. and Kaufman, D. (2013) Mobility Report. Deliverable 5.1 of SPREE – Funded by The European Commission 7th RTD Programme, Oxford, UK.

Akyelken, N. Bonilla, D., Beullens, P., Kritzinger, S., Ries, J., Schmiele, J. and Weiss, L. (2011) Synthesis of Results and Policy Recommendations.. 74 pp. Deliverable 6 of LogMan – Funded by the European Commission 7th RTD Programme. Oxford, UK..

Helmreich, S., Akyelken, N., Bonilla, D., Düh, J. and Weiss, L. (2010) Recommendation of a vision and action plan for European RTD and Transport policy. European Commission. Deliverable 7.1 of FREIGHTVISION – Vision and Action Plans for European Freight Transport until 2050.

Review articles

Akyelken, N. (2011) Review of: Coe, N. and Jones, A. (2011) The Economic Geography of the UK. Sage, London. Transport Reviews, 31(5): 679-680.

Akyelken, N. (2011) Review of: McKinnon, A., Cullinane, S., Browne, M. and Whiteing, A. (2010) Green Logistics: Improving the environmental sustainability of logistics. Kogan Page Limited, London. Transport Reviews, 31(4): 547-548.

Akyelken, N. (2009) Review of: Ison, S. and Rye, T. (2009) The way and means of transport demand management. Built Environment, 35(4): 593-595.