The Influence Of Car Cultures

Since the release of Bourdieu’s work, authors looked into the affective factors that affected car consumption. Initial work done looked at subcultures in countries where the car was used not only for self-expression but also as a place of socialising with family and friends. The car was seen to bring individuals together and thus given a social value (Miller 2001; Urry 2001). Furthermore, the activities done with/to the car created different cultures and communities that reflected their values, rituals and interests through the good. In America, the car was customised through redesign, addition of paint or vocabulary on the car and was used in a manner that exhibited the values of belonging to a gang or a community (Moorhouse, 1991).

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Authors such as Sheller (2004), Urry (2006) Seiler (2009) and Newman (2013), describe how car cultures have gone from social and material aspects to affective dimensions to create emotional cultures. The feelings about the car, the feelings experienced within the car- whilst driving or just dwelling create certain forms of passion that go into either a positive direction or a negative direction. Consumers are either excited about the car or experience anxiety and fear. Thus the emotional culture of cars doesn’t just limit itself to expression of emotions but also invokes and manages them through expectations, patterns and anticipations. The authors use Bourdieu’s work on class to explore how capital class and social class affect what is felt in the car and about the car. Another culture that forms from this is the culture of auto-freedom in which consumers’ experience of mobility, speed, power forms a community of those who enjoy it. Different levels of culture are identified- from small groups to a National level where a nation feels a certain way when it comes to cars- creates a national identity. Similarly other authors approach cultures based on collective feelings that drive consumers into the consumption of cars (Ruvio and Shoham, 2011). As such, many authors have studied how car consumption creates

A method used consistently has had some form of qualitative, empirical research and sometimes combined with quantitative data from surveys. I believe this was to help identify underlying complex factors. Yet, the articles don’t explore explicitly how these attitudes, preferences and choices are made. Consequently, referring to books written for transportation policies and problems surrounding this transport mode became necessary to understanding these