Driving and passengering: notes on the ordinary organisation of car travel
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Date
2008Author
Laurier, Eric
Lorimer, Hayden
Brown, Barry
Jones, Owain
Juhlin, Oskar
Noble, Allyson
Perry, Mark
Pica, Daniele
Sormani, Philippe
Strebel, Ignaz
Swan, Laurel
Taylor, Alex S
Watts, Laura
Weilenmann, Alexandra
Metadata
Abstract
We spend ever increasing periods of our lives travelling in cars, yet quite what it is we do
while travelling, aside from driving the vehicle itself, is largely overlooked. Drawing on
analyses of video records of a series of quite ordinary episodes of car travel, in this
findings paper we begin to document what happens during journeys. The material
concentrates on situations where people are travelling together in order to examine how
social units such as families or relationships such as colleagues or friends are reassembled
and re-organised in the small scale spaces that are car interiors. Particular
attention is paid to the forms of conversation occurring during car journeys and the
manner in which they are complicated by seating and visibility arrangements. Finally the
article touches upon the unusual form of hospitality which emerges in car sharing.