Overview

The world now has more than a billion motor vehicles, and this number continues to increase as developing countries imitate developed societies in their adoption of the culture of automobility. This book explores the political ecology of motor vehicles in an era of growing social disparities and environmental crises, the latter of which are most manifest in anthropogenic climate change to which motor vehicles constitute a major contributor. A political ecological perspective recognizes that motor vehicles, perhaps more than any other machine, embody the social, structural, cultural, and environmental contradictions of the capitalist world system. In addition to highlighting many of the environmental, social, and health, environmental consequences of humanity’s increasing reliance on motor vehicles, particularly private automobiles, this book argues that ultimately we need as a species to move beyond motor vehicles as much as possible but that such an effort will have be part and parcel of creating an alternative world system based on social justice, democratic processes, environmental sustainability, and a safe climate, one termed democratic eco-socialism.

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9781793604903

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Reviews

Baer (Univ. of Melbourne) focuses on the political ecology of motor vehicles in the context of global capitalism. Recognizing that continued and increasing dependence on cars, trucks, and other such vehicles contributes enormously to climate change, health problems, and social inequality, he marshals large quantities of data to demonstrate this negative impact. Much of Baer's presentation is devoted to the stance that automobility is unsustainable, even in the short run, and that reformist solutions such as fuel efficiency, safety regulations, and government planning are being outpaced by the worldwide growth of auto use. In addition, he provides case studies from Germany, Australia, Brazil, and Cuba to examine the differential impact globally. . . In the final chapter, he presents an abbreviated view of his solution to the dilemma, one that reaches well beyond the automobile, and advocates what he calls eco-socialism. Dense but useful, this volume should be added to transportation and environmental collections. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. * Choice Reviews * This work serves as a useful guide to how humanity arrived at its current situation of automobile dependence and sketches out many of the reasons why we will need to transcend it. * Anthropology in Action *

Author Information

Hans A. Baer is principal honorary research fellow in the School of Social Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne and author of Democratic Eco-Socialism as a Real Utopia: Transitioning to an Alternative World System.

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