Introducing Sociology Using the Stuff of Everyday Life

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Chapter 13 – Cars

Chapter Summary

Cars are an ideal example for understanding how our stuff has profound cultural and material dimensions. Cars are not only a means of transportation but a powerful marker of identity. How you get around—whether by car or truck, bike or bus—depends on your financial means, but it can also say something about the image you want to project. Certain cars are strongly associated with masculinity, and can also be a way to signal racial or ethnic identities. Cars are symbolically dense cultural commodities, but they are also material goods that can help us understand shifting economic structures, especially the transition from a Fordist economy of industrial manufacturing to a post-Fordist economy. Car culture also offers a clear example of how social structures work to shape our decisions by providing specific opportunities and constraints regarding our transportation. Outlining these social structures promotes a systemic understanding of social outcomes, an understanding that greatly improves on explanations that focus on individuals’ decisions. North Americans’ love affair with the car is longstanding but has its share of challengers. Choosing different modes of transportation (e.g. bikes, public transit, hybrid cars) has become an important way to signal environmental concern about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, and may also offer an exit strategy from the stresses of mainstream car culture (e.g. car payments, traffic, road rage). As such, thinking sociologically about cars demonstrates how people do not uncritically accept consumer culture; the car industry is powerful, but it does not erase human agency. Car culture inspires desire amongst consumers for the latest products, but knowledge of the material implications of car culture works to animate environmentalism and social movement engagement.

Further Reading

Alam, Yunis. 2020. Race, Taste, Class and Cars: Culture, Meaning and Identity.

Policy Press. Chapter 4, “Consuming Cars: Class, Ethnicity, and Taste.”

This chapter examines how car consumption reflects patterns of class and ethnic stratification, focusing on a Pakistani-heritage community in the United Kingdom. It highlights how car ownership in this community evolved from a functional necessity to a marker of status and integration, shaped by economic mobility and cultural integration. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, the chapter embeds participants’ tastes for cars in their social positions as working-class, second-generation immigrants. The author also critiques public and mass media narratives that marginalize working-class and ethnic car cultures, showing how taste functions as both a reflection of and a tool for negotiating class and ethnic boundaries.

Discussion questions
  • How do social forces like class and ethnicity shape the meanings and aspirations associated with car ownership?
  • How do car cultures enable both cultural integration and stigmatization for marginalized groups?
  • How do notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ taste relate to broader social inequalities?
  • In what ways do media portrayals of car culture marginalize working-class and minority ethnic communities, and how do these portrayals reinforce social divisions? How does the author’s approach differ from these representations?

Kennedy, Emily H., and Carly Hamdon. 2023. “Do People Who Drive Trucks Care About the Environment?” Contexts, 22(3): 18-23.

This article explores the social and moral judgments embedded in discourses around consumption and the environment. Based on interview data, the authors outline a “hierarchy of environmentalism,” or a set of cultural classifications that link social status to eco-friendly consumption practices. Class distinctions play a crucial role in shaping this hierarchy, as practices like driving electric cars or buying organic food often require significant investments of cultural and economic capital. While eco-friendly practices are seen as markers of moral superiority, those who cannot (or do not) adopt these consumer practices are perceived as less responsible or caring. They argue that this hierarchy fosters social and political polarization, impeding collective efforts to address pressing environmental issues including climate change.

Discussion questions
  • What is the hierarchy of environmentalism? How do ideas about ethical consumption influence how we think about environmental issues and responsibilities?
  • How do class relations, including inequalities of cultural and economic capital, shape the hierarchical classification of environmental attitudes and practices?
  • How does this classification system contribute to political polarization around environmental issues like climate change?
  • How can recognizing and respecting alternative relationships to the environment, such as those of “resistant” or “anti-environmentalists,” contribute to more effective environmental action?

Schor, Juliet B., Willaim Attwood-Charles, Mehmet Cansoy, et al. 2020. “Dependence and Precarity in the Platform Economy.” Theory and Society, 49(1): 833-861.

The rapid expansion of platform-based labor, as exemplified by companies like Uber and Airbnb, has raised critical questions about job precarity and algorithmic control. Through in-depth interviews, the authors find that workers’ dependency on platform income plays a key role in shaping their experiences: those relying on platforms to meet basic expenses face greater precarity and dissatisfaction, while those using platform earnings as supplemental income report higher satisfaction, greater autonomy, and better earnings. This contrast stems from supplemental earners’ ability to reject low-paying or undesirable tasks, whereas dependent workers often feel compelled to accept any opportunity to secure income. The authors argue that the sharing economy is not a monolith but comprises a diverse workforce with varying levels of agency and dependence.

Discussion questions
  • How does the rise of the sharing economy reflect the broader transition from Fordist models of stable employment to post-Fordist economies characterized by flexibility, decentralization, and precarious work arrangements?
  • How do platforms use algorithmic control to manage workers, and how does this differ from traditional forms of labor management? 
  • How do workers’ level of economic dependence on platform income shape their experiences and work satisfaction? What implications does this have for understanding labor precarity in the sharing economy?
  • What do the authors mean when they argue that platforms “free-ride” on conventional labor markets? What does this mean for the relationship between platforms and socio-economic inequalities?

Quizzes

Test your knowledge with the Chapter 13 quizzes!

Quiz

Active Learning – Further Online Resources

A decline in car culture?

How can we understand the decrease in the rates of car ownership among young people? Rates of both driving and ownership are down among younger age groups. Is this decline primarily economically based, or is it more cultural and related to different values and lifestyle priorities?    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-01/is-gen-z-really-done-with-driving-cars-don-t-bet-on-it       

Unequal transportation options:

Many people cannot afford to own a car. For some, public transportation is the only way to get to work or to school. Although there is a lot of diversity across cities, economically disadvantaged neighborhoods tend to have access to worse public transportation options. What are the social implications of this discrepancy? How can inequality in transportation access feed into broader inequalities?   

https://www.transportation.gov/priorities/equity/justice40/transportation-insecurity-analysis-tool

A world without cars:

Watch this video essay from the YouTube channel Our Changing Climate that critiques car-centric transportation systems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpo1iiuSumM . According to the video, why do we need a world without cars? How have car-centric transportation systems historically reinforced racial and economic disparities? What are the environmental consequences of car dependency? Based on the solutions presented in the video (e.g., free public transit, reduced car usage, expanded bike lanes), do you think these ideas are feasible in your community or city? What obstacles might exist, and how could they be addressed?

60-mile traffic jam!

Read this news story, which describes an extreme version of an event that almost everyone has experienced—a traffic jam.       https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/24/china-60-mile-motorway-tailback.Thinking about this traffic jam, observe the state of traffic where you live. Does traffic flow well, or is it relatively clogged? Keep a log of the time you spend in transit for one week. How does that time break down by different modes of transit? Are your choices about how to travel relatively open, or are you strongly constrained to public transportation, car travel, or a non-motorized option?

Flashcards

Refresh your knowledge of key terms with this chapter’s flashcards.

Material

Term used to refer to the physical and economic aspects of social life. For example, the material aspects of a pair of jeans include cotton crops grown in fields, textile factories where denim fabric is woven using industrial looms, laborers who stitch jeans together, as well as transnational corporations that organize production, market jeans to consumers, and handle retail operations where the jeans are finally sold

Car culture(s)

The multiple symbolic meanings associated with automobiles, as well as the social, economic, and political factors that allowed automobiles to emerge as a dominant mode of transportation

Automobility

Sheller and Urry’s term for the systems of values, norms, practices, and infrastructure that supports the dominance of automobile travel in many contemporary societies

Functionalism

A theoretical orientation that sees social groups and institutions as performing complementary tasks, resulting in interdependence and stability in society; often critiqued for being teleological and for minimizing social conflict and change.

Social structure

Enduring patterns in the organization of social life, including things like capitalism, bureaucracy, and gender inequality.

Path dependence

The idea that the initial taking of a particular course (vs. alternatives) can be self-reinforcing and have a great deal of influence on later decisions or possibilities, making other courses of action less likely to occur

Laws

Social norms that have been formalized by the state. Laws are written in precise language and approved by a governing authority

Crime

Behavior or action that society has identified in formal legal terms as socially unacceptable and subject to prosecution by the state

Social problem

A situation or behavioral pattern socially defined as pathological and requiring regulation, treatment, or improvement

Deviance

A violation of social norms, as defined by a particular culture

Stereotypes

An oversimplified portrayal used to make gross generalizations about the members of a particular social group

Aspirational/bridging commodity

A consumer good whose appeal among consumers generally exceeds consumers’ economic ability to acquire the object (e.g. a luxury car); symbolizes a lifestyle or identity that the consumer would like to connect to their future self

Masculinity

The social traits, practices, meanings, and values associated with being a man in a particular social context; ideas of masculinity are socially constructed and vary across and within different times, spaces, and cultures

Ethnicity

A social category where membership is determined by sharing cultural and social traditions, as reflective of a perceived or actual ancestral group. While sometimes synonymous with race, ethnicity is often used as a cultural category within racial categories

Archival research

A sociological research method involving the systematic examination of documents within archives (library collections, museum collections, corporate files, government records, etc.) to generate original data for analysis

Hegemony

Antonio Gramsci’s term for ideas that reinforce relationships of domination and exploitation, and become embedded in common sense

Subculture

A smaller cultural group within a larger culture. Subcultures have their own norms, values, symbols and styles that distinguish them from the larger culture, and are sometimes defined in opposition to the mainstream.

Commodity

A good or service that is produced for market exchange

Mass production

The creation of large quantities of standardized commodities produced with minimal variations and efficient production methods (e.g. assembly lines); oriented to a national or international market rather than a narrow niche or local market.

Mass consumption

A market-based system in which consumer groups representing large portions of society purchase relatively standardized goods and services

Fordism

A system of mass production using assembly line workers, first instituted by Henry Ford in the early 1900s. A hallmark of Fordism is that workers were paid well enough to purchase the mass-consumer items they produced.

Post-fordism

Arising after the economic turmoil of the 1970s, post-Fordism is characterized by niche consumption and flexible, globalized production where workers may never be able to afford the items they work on in an assembly line

Globalization

A series of social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental processes by which people, places, and economies are increasingly interconnected

Social mobility

The change in class position from one’s family of origin to the position one occupies in adulthood based on one’s own education, occupation, and income

Agency

The extent to which individuals have the capacity to think and make decisions with relative independence from larger, structural forces

Social change

The widespread societal-level alteration of norms, values, practices, and/or institutional arrangements within or across contexts

Fashion cycle

The period beginning with the introduction of a new fashion, continuing with the rise and then peak in popularity of the fashion, followed by the decline and disuse of the fashion. Described by Georg Simmel as a "trickle-down" process from elites to the masses.

Social movements

Groups of people and the activities they undertake to work together to make a particular social change

Post-materialist values

Whereas materialist values prioritize economic growth, consumer goods, and industrialization, postmaterialist values prioritize social relationships, self-actualization, and living in harmony with nature