Cars and consumption

Cars are increasingly accepted as a socio-environmental problem. However, they are rarely considered as a political problem. This article critiques the dominant trend for research into supposedly more sustainable alternatives to the present car system, such as electric vehicles, taking to task the major theoretical school that attempts to lead this charge. In so doing, it recognises car ownership of any variety as embroiled in the culture of consumption, and suggests that any attempt to overcome the trouble with cars will also require a fundamental reappraisal of our consumption patterns

The Car and the Commons

This paper discusses the centrality of the automobile to experiencing modern life. Access to a car is considered essential to access vital services and, as such, automobile usage plays a crucial role in commoning. However, this is said to draw lines of inclusion and exclusion premised on financial status, which particularly excludes those in rural areas. Such issues are especially acute at a time when electric cars are being promoted as a sustainable transport, which actually contains the potential to further marginalize the less affluent, rendering matters of access questions of class. The paper concludes by suggesting that more attention need be given to alternatives from private car ownership, focusing on communal usages