Car Troubles central premise is that the car as the dominant mode of travel needs to be problematized. It examines a wide range of issues that are central to automobility by situating it within social, economic, and political contexts, and by combining social theory, specific case studies and policy-oriented analysis. With an international team of contributors the book provides a coherent and comprehensive analysis of the global phenomenon of automobility from the Anglo world to the cases in China and Chile and all the elements that relate to it. Contents: Introduction, Jim Conley and Arlene Tigar McLaren; Part 1 Cultures of Automobility: T-bucket terrors to respectable rebels: hot rodders and drag racers in Vancouver BC, 1948–1965, Catharine Genovese; Automobile advertisements: the magical and the mundane, Jim Conley; SUV advertising: constructing identities and practices, Fiona McLean; Bad impressions: the will to concrete and the projectile economy of cities, Derek Simons. Part 2 Risk and Regulation: The safety race: transitions to the 4th age of the automobile, David MacGregor; Implementing restraint: automobile safety and the US debate over technological and social fixes, Jameson M. Wetmore; 'Mind that child': childhood, traffic and walking in automobilized space, Damian Collins, Catherine Bean and Robin Kearns. Part 3 Inevitable Automobility?: The politics of mobility: de-essentializing automobility and contesting urban space, Jason Henderson; The Chilean way to modernity: private roads, fast cars, neoliberal bodies, Ricardo Trumper and Patricia Tomic; Driven to drive: cars and the problem of 'compulsory consumption', Dennis Soron. Part 4 Beyond the Car: Mobility as a positional good: implications for transport policy and planning, Todd Litman; The global intensification of motorization and its impacts on urban social ecologies, George Martin; Post-car mobilities, Kingsley Dennis and John Urry; Index. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting