A Social Problems Framework for the Critical Appraisal of Automobility and Sustainable Systems Innovation

Over the past three decades, critical assessment of the automobile has evolved from a focus on the technical inadequacies of the internal combustion engine to a more comprehensive appraisal of the sociotechnical system for providing mobility. The following study charts the evolution of this discourse by focusing in particular on the way in which the Worldwatch Institute has interpreted the various problems of the motorcar during this timeframe. There are now indications that a more thoroughgoing systems view of automobile dependency is developing predicated upon three problem dimensions: fuel use, urban congestion and sedentary lifestyles. The analysis presents a social‐problems framework for beginning to conceptualize more sustainable modes of mobility in the post‐automobile era.

[1]  George Martin,et al.  The Ecology of the Automobile , 1993 .

[2]  J. C. Brezet,et al.  How to kick off system innovation: a Rotterdam case study of the transition to a fuel cell transport system , 2005 .

[3]  B. Brenner.  The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape , 1999 .

[4]  C Norman,et al.  The future of the automobile in an oil-short world , 1979 .

[5]  Frans Berkhout,et al.  Socio-Technological Regimes and Transition Contexts , 2004 .

[6]  E. Shove.  Comfort, Cleanliness and Convenience: The Social Organization of Normality , 2003 .

[7]  Harry Geerlings,et al.  Transport Innovation: Coping with the Future , 2003 .

[8]  Donald Vandegrift,et al.  Obesity rates, income, and suburban sprawl: an analysis of US states. , 2004, Health & place.

[9]  A. Wieczorek,et al.  Transitions towards sustainability through system innovation , 2005 .

[10]  Tony Beadle,et al.  The American Automobile , 1996 .

[11]  A. Warde,et al.  Consumption in the Age of Affluence: The World of Food , 1997 .

[12]  Marcia D. Lowe.  ALTERNATIVES TO THE AUTOMOBILE: TRANSPORT FOR LIVABLE CITIES , 1990 .

[13]  Jane Dixon,et al.  CHANGING THE OBESOGENIC ENVIRONMENT: INSIGHTS FROM A CULTURAL ECONOMY OF CAR RELIANCE , 2005 .

[14]  H Cutcliffe Stephen.  America and the Automobile: Technology, Reform, and Social Change. By Peter J. Ling. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990. vi + 202 pp. $59.95.) , 1991 .

[15]  Peter E. S. Freund,et al.  Walking and motoring: fitness and the social organisation of movement. , 2004, Sociology of health & illness.

[16]  A. Jamison.  DEBATING THE CAR IN THE 1960S AND 1990S: SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES , 1995 .

[17]  L. Ayvazian,et al.  Air Pollution, the Automobile, and Public Health , 1989 .

[18]  Glenn Lyons,et al.  Internet: investigating new technology's evolving role, nature and effects on transport , 2002 .

[19]  S. Raudenbush,et al.  Relationship between Urban Sprawl and Physical Activity, Obesity, and Morbidity , 2003, American journal of health promotion : AJHP.

[20]  Russ P Lopez.  Urban sprawl and risk for being overweight or obese. , 2004, American journal of public health.

[21]  Peter E. S. Freund,et al.  Speaking about accidents: the ideology of auto safety , 1997 .

[22]  V. Wallis.  Lester Brown, the Worldwatch Institute, and the Dilemmas of Technocratic Revolution , 1997 .

[23]  Peter J. Hugill,et al.  Down the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the American City by Clay McShane (review) , 1995, Technology and Culture.

[24]  Ted R. Miller,et al.  THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MOTOR VEHICLE CRASHES, 2000 , 2002 .

[25]  F. Geels.  Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study , 2002 .

[26]  E. Tenner.  Why things bite back : technology and the revenge of unintended consequences , 1996 .

[27]  Amelia C. Regan,et al.  IMPACTS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ON PERSONAL TRAVEL AND COMMERCIAL VEHICLE OPERATIONS : RESEARCH CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES , 2000 .

[28]  Patricia L. Mokhtarian,et al.  A conceptual analysis of the transportation impacts of B2C e-commerce , 2004 .

[29]  Martin A. Andresen,et al.  Obesity relationships with community design, physical activity, and time spent in cars. , 2004, American journal of preventive medicine.

[30]  N. Freudenberg.  Public Health Advocacy to Change Corporate Practices: Implications for Health Education Practice and Research , 2005, Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education.

[31]  O. Gutfreund.  Twentieth-Century Sprawl: Highways and the Reshaping of the American Landscape , 2004 .

[32]  Arnold Tukker,et al.  Industrial Ecology and the Automotive Transport System , 2004 .

[33]  D. Gartman.  Auto-Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design , 1996 .

[34]  M. M. Ford,et al.  Regulating Environments to Reduce Obesity , 2004, Journal of public health policy.

[35]  James J. Flink,et al.  The Automobile Age , 1988 .

[36]  Susan A Ferguson,et al.  Content analysis of television advertising for cars and minivans: 1983-1998. , 2000, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[37]  S. Olshansky,et al.  A potential decline in life expectancy in the United States in the 21st century. , 2005, The New England journal of medicine.

[38]  Glenn Lyons,et al.  Transport and social exclusion: investigating the possibility of promoting inclusion through virtual mobility , 2002 .

[39]  George W. Hilton,et al.  Getting There: The Epic Struggle between Road and Rail in the American Century , 1995 .

[40]  Lindy Biggs,et al.  America and the Automobile: Technology, Reform and Social Change/1893-1923 , 1990 .

[41]  Joseph V. Smith.  :Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage , 2002 .

[42]  Rudi Volti,et al.  A Century of Automobility , 1996 .

[43]  Daniel Horowitz.  The Anxieties of Affluence: Critiques of American Consumer Culture, 1939-1979 , 2004 .

[44]  Paul Barrett,et al.  The Motorization of American Cities , 1986 .

[45]  Gert Spaargaren,et al.  Lifestyles, consumption and the environment: The ecological modernization of domestic consumption , 2000 .

[46]  Worldwatching at the limits of growth , 1994 .

[47]  Molly O'Meara Sheehan.  City Limits: Putting the Brakes on Sprawl , 1990 .

[48]  C. Ferrell,et al.  Home-Based Teleshoppers and Shopping Travel: Do Teleshoppers Travel Less? , 2004 .

[49]  J. Sallis,et al.  The first Active Living Research Conference: growth of a transdisciplinary field. , 2005, American journal of preventive medicine.

[50]  Keith Bradsher,et al.  High and mighty : SUVs : the world's most dangerous vehicles and how they got that way , 2002 .

[51]  Jason R. Henderson.  The Politics of Mobility and Business Elites in Atlanta, Georgia , 2004 .

[52]  Steven Winkelman,et al.  Reducing the Impacts of Transportation on Global Warming: Summary of New York Greenhouse Gas Task Force Recommendations , 2003 .

[53]  K. Deffeyes.  Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage , 2008 .

[54]  Susan Hanson,et al.  Critical mass: forging a politics of sustainable mobility in the information age , 2001 .

[55]  P. Goldberg,et al.  The Effects of the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency Standards , 1996 .

[56]  Maurie J. Cohen.  Sustainable consumption American style: Nutrition education, active living and financial literacy , 2005 .

[57]  Donald Kennedy,et al.  Air Pollution, the Automobile, and Public Health , 1988 .

[58]  TRANSPORT AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION , 2000 .

[59]  M. Binswanger.  Technological progress and sustainable development: what about the rebound effect? , 2001 .

[60]  Simon Hales,et al.  The motor car and public health: are we exhausting the environment? , 2002, The Medical journal of Australia.

[61]  Tom McCarthy,et al.  The Coming Wonder?: Foresight and Early Concerns about the Automobile , 2001, Environmental History.

[62]  G. Vigar.  The Politics of Mobility: Transport, the Environment, and Public Policy , 2002 .

[63]  Olle Hagman,et al.  The Meaning of the Automobile , 1991 .

[64]  P. Calthorpe.  The Next American Metropolis: Ecology, Community, and the American Dream , 1993 .

[65]  Susan L Handy,et al.  Smart Growth and the Transportation-Land Use Connection: What Does the Research Tell Us? , 2005 .

[66]  Joseph R. Gusfield,et al.  The Culture of Public Problems: Drinking-Driving and the Symbolic Order , 1983 .

[67]  Douglas Brinkley,et al.  Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress, 1903-2003 , 2003 .

[68]  M. V. Asselt,et al.  More evolution than revolution: transition management in public policy , 2001 .

[69]  Julie Guthman,et al.  Commodified meanings, meaningful commodities: Re-thinking production-consumption links through the organic system of provision , 2002 .

[70]  James J. Flink,et al.  The Automobile Age. , 1989 .

[71]  L. Jackson.  The relationship of urban design to human health and condition , 2003 .

[72]  A. Reggiani,et al.  INFORMATION SOCIETY AND BEHAVIOURAL ISSUES , 2000 .

[73]  V.A.W.J. Marchau,et al.  Innovative methodologies for exploring the future of automated vehicle guidance , 2003 .

[74]  Chris Wright,et al.  Reshaping the motor car , 2005 .

[75]  J. Goldberg.  Economic impact of motor vehicle crashes. , 2002, Annals of Emergency Medicine.

[76]  Chris R. Swenson,et al.  Long-Run Changes in Driver Behavior Due to Variable Tolls , 2004 .

[77]  M Nestle,et al.  Halting the obesity epidemic: a public health policy approach. , 2000, Public health reports.

[78]  Barbara Lenz.  Will Electronic Commerce Help to Reduce Traffic in Agglomeration Areas? , 2003 .