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Against Automobility
Contributor(s): Bohm, Steffen (Editor), Jones, Campbell (Editor), Land, Chris (Editor)
ISBN: 1405152702     ISBN-13: 9781405152709
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
OUR PRICE:   $39.85  
Product Type: Paperback
Published: November 2006
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Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Annotation: Despite the promise of freedom and autonomy that has been claimed to characterize the automobile, the automobile is also implicated in wholesale ecological destruction, automated industrial factory production and a uniquely individualistic conception of autonomy. This contradiction at the heart of automobility is the target of this book, which takes to task the moving 'iron cages' that roam the modern landscape. Given the ubiquity of the automobile, and the patent contradictions and impossibilities on which it rests, it is strange that automobility has escaped serious critical theoretical attention for so long.

In this volume, distinguished scholars from across the social sciences and humanities focus a critical theoretical gaze on the automobile or, more accurately, on the regime of automobility that conjoins a particular conception of autonomy with a particular conception of mobility and sees the automobile as the pure living embodiment of automobility. The contributors interrogate not simply 'the car' but also the social forms of organization that enable, and are reproduced by, widespread automobility; the cultural reproduction of auto-mobile subjectivities; and the political refiguration of autonomy and constraint that have been driven by automobility. In doing so, they open the space for a political evaluation and reappraisal of automobility in all of its facets.

This volume will be of interest to those working in areas such as geography, politics, consumption and cultural studies, but also to those in critical theory and the sociology of objects and of everyday life. It shows a way of thinking about, against, and beyond the current regime of automobility.

Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Sociology - General
- Technology & Engineering | Social Aspects
- Transportation | Automotive - General
Dewey: 306.481
LCCN: 2006018125
Series: Sociological Review Monographs
Physical Information: 0.54" H x 6.3" W x 9.02" (0.81 lbs) 268 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Despite its promise of freedom and autonomy, the ubiquity of the automobile has influenced unforeseen ecological, social, and political change. In Against Automobility, a panel of distinguished scholars take a critical look at the contradiction of the automobile.

  • A critical account of the impact of the car on society, which is both liberated by and reliant upon motor vehicles.
  • Written by a panel of distinguished scholars from varying disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.
  • Examines automobility's effect on environmental, social, and political issues.
  • Will be of interest to those whose research focuses on geography, politics, consumption and cultural studies, critical theory, and the sociology of objects and everyday life.