Automobility—A Social Problem and Theoretical Concept

In this paper, I explore automobility as the dominant type of contemporary everyday mobility. I critically review recent attempts to conceptualise the social role of cars and subsequently suggest a three-dimensional model to theorise automobility further as a modern mobility paradigm. This theory of automobility assigns central importance to the subjects, the vehicles, and the spatiotemporalities that are involved in, and produced by, the car-system. For the purpose of outlining the content and internal dependencies of this three-dimensional model, I make use of theoretical assumptions gleaned from transport geography, modernisation theory, as well as the sociology of technology. Furthermore, I argue that a somewhat orthodox form of automobilisation has become reflexive in the course of a growing public recognition of the inherent threats of the car to culture and nature. Under reflexive automobilisation almost all ‘auto-subjects’ are engaged in defining, interpreting, and responding to ‘auto-risks’. They do not necessarily do this, however, in a self-critical fashion. Instead of fostering the rise of a different, postautomotive mobility paradigm, their responses often merely lead to a reproduction of traditional ‘auto-scapes’.