Alan Walks (editor) - Urban Political Economy & Ecology of Automobility: Driving Cities, Driving Inequality, Driving Politics (Routledge Studies in Urbanism and the City)

Driving Cities, Driving Inequality, Driving Politics

Just how resilient are our urban societies to social, energy, environmental, and/or financial shocks, and how does this vary among cities and nations? Can our cities be made more sustainable, and can environmental, economic, and social collapse be staved off through changes in urban form and travel behaviour? How might rising indebtedness and the recent series of financial crises be related to automobile dependence and patterns of urban automobile use? To what extent does the system and economy of automobility factor in the production of urban socio-spatial inequalities, and how might these inequalities in mobility be understood and measured? What can we learn from the politics of mobility and social movements within cities? What is the role of automobility, and auto-dependence, in differentiating groups, both within cities and rural areas, and among transnational migrants moving across international borders? These are just some of the questions this book addresses.

This volume provides a holistic and reflexive account of the role played by automobility in producing, reproducing, and differentiating social, economic, and political life in the contemporary city, as well as the role played by the city in producing and reproducing auto-mobile inequalities. The first section, titled Driving Vulnerability, deals with issues of global importance related to economic, social, financial, and environmental sustainability and resilience, and socialization. The second section, Driving Inequality, is concerned with understanding the role played by automobility in producing urban socio-spatial inequalities, including those rooted in accessibility to work, migration status and ethnic concentration, and new measures of mobility-based inequality derived from the concept of effective speed. The third section, titled, Driving Politics, explores the politics of mobility in particular places, with an eye to demonstrating both the relevance of the politics of mobility for influencing and reinforcing actually existing neoliberalisms, and the kinds of politics that might allow for reform or restructuring of the auto-mobile city into one that is more socially, politically, and environmentally just. In the conclusion to the book Walks draws on the findings of the other chapters to comment on the relationship between automobility, neoliberalism, and citizenship, and to lay out strategies for dealing with the urban car system.

Alan Walks is an associate professor of urban geography and planning at the University of Toronto. His research explores issues and policies related to urban socio-spatial inequality, urban development processes, and political ideology. He is a co-editor of the book The Political Ecology of the Metropolis.

Routledge studies in urbanism and the city

This series offers a forum for original and innovative research that engages with key debates and concepts in the field. Titles within the series range from empirical investigations to theoretical engagements, offering international perspectives and multidisciplinary dialogues across the social sciences and humanities, from urban studies, planning, geography, geohumanities, sociology, politics, the arts, cultural studies, philosophy and literature.

Published:

The Urban Political Economy and Ecology of Automobility

Driving Cities, Driving Inequality, Driving Politics

Edited by Alan Walks

Forthcoming:

Cities and Inequalities

Edited by Faranak Miraftab, Ken Salo, and David Wilson

Mega-Urbanization in the Global South

Fast cities and new urban utopias of the postcolonial state

Edited by Abdul Shaban and Ayona Datta

First published 2015

by Routledge

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2015 Alan Walks

The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Urban political economy and ecology of automobility: driving cities, driving inequality, driving politics / edited by Alan Walks.

pages cm. (Routledge studies in urbanism and the city)

1. AutomobilesSocial aspects. 2. Cities and towns. 3. Urbanization.

I. Walks, Alan II. Title: Urban political economy and ecology of automobility.

HE5611.U73 2014

ISBN: 978-0-415-70615-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-76618-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

ALAN WALKS

GEORGE T . MARTIN

PETER NEWMAN AND JEFFREY KENWORTHY

ALAN WALKS

RON N . BULIUNG , KRISTIAN LARSEN , PAUL HESS , GUY FAULKNER, CAROLINE FUSCO, AND LINDA ROTHMAN

PABLO MENDEZ , MARKUS MOOS, AND REBECCA OSOLEN

ALAN WALKS AND PAUL TRANTER

RON N . BULIUNG, ANNYA C . SHIMI, AND RAKTIM MITRA

PAUL HESS , HELEN HAO WEN HUANG , AND MIREJ VASIC

EMILY REID-MUSSON

ALAN WALKS

JASON HENDERSON

ALAN WALKS , MATTI SIEMIATYCKI , AND MATT SMITH

MATT TALSMA

ALAN WALKS

Ron N. Buliung, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Toronto Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road North, Mississauga, ON, Canada, L5L 1C6.

Guy Faulkner, Associate Professor, Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto St. George, 55 Harbord Street, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 2W6.

Caroline Fusco, Associate Professor, Faculty of kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto St. George, 55 Harbord Street, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 2W6.

Jason Henderson, Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environment, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA.

Paul Hess, Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Program in Planning, Sidney Smith Hall, University of Toronto St. George, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 3G3.

Helen Hao Wen Huang, Department of Geography and Program in Planning, Sidney Smith Hall, University of Toronto St. George, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 3G3.

Jeffrey Kenworthy, Professor, Curtin Sustainability Policy Institute (CUSP), Curtin University, Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia.

Kristian Larsen, Department of Geography, Sidney Smith Hall, University of Toronto St. George, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 3G3.

George T. Martin, Professor, Montclair State University, 308 Dickson Hall, Montclair, NJ, USA 07043.

Pablo Mendez, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1S 5B6.