Automobilisering som mobilitetsparadigme - refleksioner over biler, bilister og deres spatiotemporaliteter

Beckmann, Jörg · 2006 · Crossref

DOI: 10.22439/dansoc.v11i1.603

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Summary

This paper, titled "Automobilisering som mobilitetsparadigme" (Automobilization as a Mobility Paradigm), addresses the sociological understanding of the automobile as a central paradigm of modern society. The author, Jörg Beckmann, argues that transport research has shifted from a normative, technocratic discipline to a social science focused on the interweaving of mobility and modern society. The paper aims to provide a theoretical contribution to traffic and mobility sociology by analyzing contemporary "auto-scapes," the subjects and objects within them, and the concept of "reflexive automobilization." It seeks to move beyond viewing the car merely as a technical artifact or a Large Technological System (LTS), proposing instead a model that integrates spatiotemporal contexts, subjects, and vehicles. The analysis draws on sociological theories, including the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), Large Technological Systems (LTS), and the works of theorists such as David Harvey, Anthony Giddens, and Ulrich Beck. Beckmann examines how automobilization creates specific spatiotemporalities, arguing that the car fragments space and compresses time, leading to an acceleration of daily life. He explores the concept of "time-space compression," noting that while the car offers freedom from rigid schedules, it also creates new dependencies on expert systems and infrastructure. The paper further investigates the "auto-subject," describing drivers as hybrids embedded in a "civil society of automobilility" where individual freedom is paradoxically constrained by institutionalized standards and traffic regulations. Key findings indicate that automobilization is not a static phenomenon but a dynamic process characterized by a "spiral dynamics" of self-reproduction. The car has transformed urban structures, creating fragmented spaces where specific activities are tied to specific locations, and has altered human interaction by introducing new forms of conflict and intimacy within the "metal cocoon" of the vehicle. Beckmann concludes that while the automobile promises individualization and liberation from spatiotemporal restrictions, it simultaneously leads to the standardization and institutionalization of lifestyles. The driver becomes an object of the mobility paradigm, subject to expert systems and regulatory frameworks. Thus, automobilization binds the subject to a specific social context even as it appears to free them, revealing a dialectical relationship between mobility and modernity where the car serves as both an enabler of social interaction and a source of structural constraint.

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