From Urban Planning to Conspiracy Theorizing: The 15-Minute City and Its Unexpected Role in the UK Conspiracy Landscape

A collision between local political struggles and broader global narratives: how did the 15-minute city—a simple idea about making daily necessities more accessible by foot or bike—turn into a symbol of state control, government overreach, and the erosion of personal freedoms for conspiracy theorists in Oxford?

On February 18, 2023, thousands of protesters gathered in Oxford, marching through the streets in what was, on the surface, a demonstration against the city’s new traffic management plan. But as I walked among the crowd, reading the signs and listening to the speeches, it became clear that the grievances went far beyond road closures.

Some demonstrators carried banners demanding an end to low-traffic neighborhoods (LTNs), arguing that they made daily commutes unbearable. Others, however, were not just there to protest traffic restrictions. Leaflets being passed around the crowd connected the Oxford traffic scheme to a much bigger global plot—one that stretched from local councils to the World Economic Forum, climate lockdowns, cashless societies, and even COVID-19 conspiracies.

One man waved a sign reading “Stop the Great Reset”, while another distributed pamphlets listing a dizzying array of seemingly unrelated issues: geoengineering, 5G radiation, excess deaths during the pandemic, the rise of digital IDs.

As I spoke to different people, it became clear that this was no longer just a debate about urban planning. The 15-minute city—a simple idea about making daily necessities more accessible by foot or bike—had become a symbol of state control, government overreach, and the erosion of personal freedoms.

When a City Plan Becomes a Global Conspiracy

The 15-minute city (FMC) is an urban planning model that has been promoted for years as a sustainable alternative to car-dependent urban sprawl. The idea is simple: instead of forcing residents to rely on cars to access work, healthcare, and shopping, cities should be designed so that these services are reachable within a short walk or bike ride.

But in late 2022, something changed. Social media narratives about 15-minute cities took a sharp turn, claiming that these plans were not about convenience at all, but about trapping people within their neighborhoods, restricting movement, and enforcing “climate lockdowns.”

As one protester told me, ”First they locked us down for COVID. Now they want to lock us down for climate change.”

The Oxford protest revealed just how much this urban policy had been absorbed into a much larger conspiracy framework. Residents who simply wanted better traffic policies now found themselves standing alongside climate change deniers, anti-vaxxers, and far-right activists.

Figures like Piers Corbyn—a well-known climate change skeptic—stood at the center of the protest, railing against not just LTNs but Agenda 2030, digital surveillance, and global elites. The Heritage Party, a populist right-wing group, held signs denouncing ”green tyranny.” Even the far-right group Patriotic Alternative was accused of attempting to hijack the movement.

It was a striking example of how a local political issue had become entangled with global conspiracy narratives.

The American Influence: Why Oxford Became a Conspiratorial Battleground

What was particularly odd about this controversy was how much of the rhetoric sounded American.

In the U.S., the anti-lockdown movement that emerged during the pandemic had deep ideological ties to libertarianism and an almost sacred attachment to cars and unrestricted movement. Social media accounts linked to American conspiracy influencers began framing 15-minute cities as an attack on personal freedom.

But as Milo Comerford of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) pointed out, Oxford was an unlikely place for this type of outrage. Unlike sprawling, car-reliant American cities, Oxford has always been pedestrian and bike-friendly. Its medieval layout makes driving inconvenient by default.

Yet by early 2023, Oxford’s local traffic plan had been imported into a global conspiracy framework, blending anxieties about COVID lockdowns, government control, and the World Economic Forum’s ”Great Reset.”

The result was a collision between local political struggles and broader global narratives, with Oxford’s road closures becoming a symbol of a much bigger, more nebulous fear.

Why Conspiracies Shape Themselves to Place

The 15-minute city controversy in Oxford is a powerful example of how conspiratorial thinking is never static. It evolves, adapting to local struggles, cultural anxieties, and political realities.

In this case, what began as a policy to reduce congestion was reinterpreted through a different lens—one that was shaped by post-pandemic fears of control, government overreach, and climate-related restrictions.

For anthropologists, this case is a perfect example of why ethnographic research is essential to understanding political movements, conspiracies, and public anxieties.

Theories about global control or digital surveillance don’t spread in isolation. They attach themselves to local realities, drawing legitimacy from specific policies, historical grievances, and national political struggles.

Without ethnographic insight, we risk treating conspiracy theories as abstract misinformation problems rather than social and political phenomena rooted in real places, real tensions, and real concerns.

This is why studying conspiracy movements requires more than just debunking falsehoods. It requires understanding how and why people interpret political events in the way that they do.

In Oxford, a traffic debate became a battle over freedom and control. The 15-minute city became a metaphor for a much larger ideological war.

And to understand how that happened, we have to look not just at the internet, but at the streets where these narratives take hold.

Final Thoughts

This controversy reminds us that conspiracy theories are not just about misinformation. They reflect political anxieties, cultural fears, and real-world grievances.

The protests in Oxford weren’t just about LTNs or 15-minute cities. They were about who gets to decide how cities function, who has power, and what it means to be free.

And when we see global conspiracy movements intersecting with local policies, we are not just witnessing paranoia. We are witnessing a struggle over meaning—one that is deeply tied to place, history, and identity.