Rachel Macrorie

Rachel Macrorie is a post-doctoral research associate at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. Her research interests centre around the governance of urban life for social equity and environmental sustainability, with a particular focus on urban automation and robotics, smart homes and cities, and resource management. As part of the Urban Automation and Robotics research theme at the Urban Institute, her work seeks to understand how innovations in autonomous systems and robotics shape urban life and infrastructures, and with what consequences for society. She currently works on a European comparative Open Research Area funded project investigating the knowledge politics of smart urban experimentation and the implications for urban decision-making. She is also involved in researching the role of digital infrastructures known as ‘platforms’ within cities, and the possibilities for socially progressive alternatives to monopolistic value-extraction. Her doctorate traced and evaluated the success of the former UK Government’s ‘Code for Sustainable Homes’ policy as a governance intervention to encourage low-carbon housing construction and sustainable living.