Car Culture

Policing the Roads: Traffic Cops, 'Boy Racers' and Anti-Social Behaviour

by Karen Lumsden

'Policing and Society' (forthcoming)

This paper explores the policing and regulation of young motorists known in the United Kingdom as ‘boy racers’. It... more This paper explores the policing and regulation of young motorists known in the United Kingdom as ‘boy racers’. It demonstrates how police officers’ definitional decisions in relation to driving behaviours were influenced by a range of exogenous and endogenous factors, which subsequently shaped the landscape of enforcement and interactions with the community and drivers. A shift over time in the nature of the problem due to urban regeneration, innovations in the technology of the motor car, and the availability of anti-social behaviour legislation impacted upon the policing of urban space. The strategies employed in order to police the culture and the related urban space were reminiscent of a deeper policing tradition wherein managing incivilities and local problems is part of the community policing perspective. Data is presented from semi-structured interviews with police, residents, and ‘boy racers’, and ethnographic fieldwork with the drivers in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Corporate power and the market: Automotive performance and the automobile industry

by Alan Listiak

Critical mass, urban space and velomobility

by Zack Furness

Cruisin'Envy

by Zack Furness

Managing Quasi-Domesticity at the Roadside: Postwar Female Moteliers and the Space of Reinvention

by Cara Rodway

Published in Women’s Studies, 40:1030–1051, 2011, Special Issue: ‘Women Inventing the Fifties’. DOI: 10.1080/00497878.2011.609414

The popularity of motels in the 1950s triggered a mini publishing boom for novel-length accounts of motel life.... more The popularity of motels in the 1950s triggered a mini publishing boom for novel-length accounts of motel life. Through a close reading of two memoirs by female moteliers, this article reveals the motel space to be a microcosm for the changes happening in the lives of American women around the country. By considering the nature of work, family relationships and the treatment of the “hot pillow trade” within the texts, this article argues that the liminal space of the motel, at once a commercial venture and a quasi-domestic “home on the road,” brought the contrasts and contradictions of women’s position in the postwar era into sharp relief, whilst also allowing new understandings of personal identity to emerge.

The hoon

by Glen Fuller

Burning Green Rubber: The Displacement of Ecological Integrity in Automotive Advertising

by Alan Foljambe

images can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50929645@N00/sets/72157627071159330/

Gendered Performances In a Male-Dominated Subculture:'Girl Racers', Car Modification and the Quest for Masculinity

by Karen Lumsden

Sociological Research Online, 2010, 15(3). URL: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/15/3/6.html

This paper discusses female participation in the male-dominated 'boy racer' culture. Little is known about girls who... more This paper discusses female participation in the male-dominated 'boy racer' culture. Little is known about girls who join male-dominated subcultures while studies of car cultures have tended to describe girls as peripheral participants and emphasise the link between the car and masculinity. Hence this paper provides an analysis of 'girl racers'; those drivers who are active participants in the 'racer' culture through their positioning in the 'driver's seat'. Gender is understood as 'performative' and Connell's notions of 'hegemonic masculinity' and 'emphasized femininity' frame the analysis. For the 'girl racers', 'doing gender' involved negotiating a complex set of norms while reconciling the competing discourses of the masculine 'racer' scene and femininity. In order to be viewed as authentic participants, females were required to act like 'one of the boys' through their style of dress, driving, language and attitudes. They internalised the gender norms of the culture rather than resisting them explicitly, for fear of being excluded from the group. However, the feminine ways in which they modified their cars allowed them to retain an element of femininity within the world of 'boy racers'. Thus, 'girl racers' resourcefully negotiated their way through the culture by employing a combination of complex strategies involving compliance, resistance and cooperation with the masculine values of the group. Findings are presented from participant observation, semi-structured and ethnographic interviews with members of the 'racer' culture in Aberdeen, Scotland, and semi-structured interviews with members of 'outside' groups.

'Do We Look Like Boy Racers?' The Role of the Folk Devil in Contemporary Moral Panics

by Karen Lumsden

Sociological Research Online, 2009, 14(1). URL: http://www.socresonline.org.uk/14/1/2.html

This article addresses the failure of studies concerning moral panics to take into account the reaction of those... more This article addresses the failure of studies concerning moral panics to take into account the reaction of those individuals who are the subject of social anxiety. It responds to the suggestion by McRobbie and Thornton (1995) that studies of moral panic need to account for the role played by the 'folk devils' themselves, for a moral panic is a collective process (Young, 2007). The paper presents findings from ethnographic fieldwork with the 'boy racer' culture in Aberdeen, qualitative interviews with members of outside groups, and content analysis of media articles. The societal reaction to the 'boy racer' subculture in Aberdeen is evidence of a contemporary moral panic. The media's representation of the subculture contributed to the stigmatization of young drivers and the labelling of the subculture's activities as deviant and antisocial. The drivers were aware of their negative portrayal in the media; however their attempts to change the myth of the 'boy racer' were unsuccessful. Although subcultural media can provide an outlet of self-expression for youths, these forms of media can also become caught-up in the moral panic. Ironically the youths' own niche and micro media reified the (ir)rationality for the moral panic.

"'The Key to the Universe': Springsteen, Masculinity, and the Car"

by Katherine Parkin

Violence and Vinyl: Car Crashes in 1960s Pop

by jack sargeant

chapter in Car Crash Culture, ed. Mikita Brottman, New York: Palgrove / St Martins Press, 2001.

Squealing Wheels and Flying Fists

by jack sargeant

chapter in book Autopia, edited by Peter Wollen and Joe Kerr, London: ReAktion Books, 2002.