Parental Traffic Safeguarding at School Sites: Unequal Risks and Responsibilities
25 Apr 2011-Canadian Journal of Sociology (University of Alberta Libraries)-Vol. 36, Iss: 2, pp 161-184
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of spatial and social contexts on parents' school traffic safety practices were explored based on a comparison of two public elementary schools located on the east and west sides of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Abstract: Based on a comparison of two public elementary schools located on the east and west sides of Vancouver, British Columbia, the paper explores the effects of spatial and social contexts on parents’ school traffic safety practices. By taking into account the dynamics of gender and social class in different geographies of mobility at the two schools, we illustrate how parents’ (especially mothers’) daily concerns, practices and volunteerism reflect unequal risks and responsibilities in safeguarding children from motorized traffic. We also suggest that despite geographical differences and social inequalities, auto-centred environments and traffic safety governance create remarkably similar parental mobility concerns at the two schools, reflecting the stratifying effects of automobility. Our analysis of the troubling effects of the automobility system underscores the importance of acknowledging how parental traffic safety practices contribute to the illusion of traffic safety and to the necessity of challenging auto hegemony.
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Dissertation•
26 Oct 2017
52 citations
Additional excerpts
...…body of critical automobility research in Canada (Conley & Jenson, 2016; Conley & McLaren, 2009; Genovese, 2009; MacGregor, 2002; McLaren, 2007; McLaren & Parusel, 2011, 2014; McLean, 2016a, 2016b; Morton, 2016; Scott, 2010; Reid-Musson, 2014), in particular through my focus on the trucking…...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the transport modal practices of parents with young children in everyday urban life based on a qualitative multi-site approach that takes into account the geographic location, urban form and socio-economic characteristics of four Vancouver ( British Columbia) neighborhoods.
35 citations
31 Dec 2015
31 citations
TL;DR: Hanson et al. as discussed by the authors explored how automobility constructs disciplined parental practices to immobilize and safeguard children, and how these practices are deeply embedded within contexts of gender and automation that (re)produce social inequalities.
Abstract: The growing interest in automobility theory and feminist perspectives on daily mobility points to the importance of considering parental mobility care of children. Hanson (2010, Gender, Place & Culture 17(1), 5–23) argues that feminists have long known that gender and mobility are bound together but have not sufficiently examined their contexts. The article extends this approach in its exploration of parental mobility care practices. It illustrates how automobility constructs disciplined parental practices to immobilize and safeguard children. Conversely, it shows how parental mobility care practices use, generate and resist automobility. These practices, the article argues, are deeply embedded within contexts of gender and automobility that (re)produce social inequalities. This analysis, which emerged out of our qualitative, interpretive approach, suggests new ways of thinking about automobility and parenting in relation to one another. The research is based on in-depth interviews with parents located in...
26 citations
Cites background from "Parental Traffic Safeguarding at Sc..."
...Social class is central to understanding a vital aspect of parental mobility care – safeguarding children from traffic (McLaren and Parusel 2011)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, a Neo-Goffmanian account of the construction of the car-driver self is presented, which provides a complementary theoretical framework to those based on the work of Michel Foucault to account for the production of the automobile self.
17 citations
Cites background from "Parental Traffic Safeguarding at Sc..."
...Other road users who are not constantly attentive to the movement of autoselves continually risk – a point parents frequently are at pains to impress upon children – death and serious injury (Holzapfel 2000; Taylor 2003, 1619–1622; McLaren and Parusel 2011; Pearce 2012, 94)....
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References
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Book•
01 Sep 2003
TL;DR: The power and limits of social class are explored in this paper, where the authors present a theory of Bourdieu's theory of the power of social structure and daily life in the organization of daily life.
Abstract: Acknowledgments 1. Concerted Cultivation and the Accomplishment of Natural Growth 2. Social Structure and Daily Life PART I. THE ORGANIZATION OF DAILY LIFE 3. A Hectic Pace of Concerted Cultivation: Garrett Tallinger 4. A Child's Pace: Tyrec Taylor 5. Children's Play Is for Children: Katie Brindle PART II. LANGUAGE USE 6. Developing a Child: Alexander Williams 7. Language as a Conduit of Social Life: Harold McAllister PART III. FAMILIES AND INSTITUTIONS 8. Concerted Cultivation in Organizational Spheres: Stacey Marshall 9. Effort Creates Misery: Melanie Handlon 10. Letting Educators Lead the Way: Wendy Driver 11. Beating with a Belt, Fearing "the School": Little Billy Yanelli 12. The Power and Limits of Social Class Appendix A. Methodology: Enduring Dilemmas in Fieldwork Appendix B. Theory: Understanding the Work of Pierre Bourdieu Appendix C. Supporting Tables Notes Bibliography Index
4,355 citations
"Parental Traffic Safeguarding at Sc..." refers background in this paper
...Other leading studies draw upon Bourdieu’s theory of social class to show the advantage that middle-class mothers have over working-class mothers in activating varied forms of capital (including cultural, social, and economic) to engage confidently with the school system (Reay 1998; Lareau 2003)....
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...As has been widely discussed in the literature on schooling and cultural capital (e.g., Lareau 2003; Reay 1998), families that are unfamiliar with speaking English or with the workings of the educational system are less able to actualize their concerns about school affairs....
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Book•
28 Aug 1996
TL;DR: Hays as discussed by the authors argues that women are expected to be nurturing and unselfish in their role as mothers, while men are judged to be competitive and even ruthless at work, and these unrealistic expectations of mothers reflect a deep cultural ambivalence about the pursuit of self-interest.
Abstract: "Hays's intellectually incendiary Cultural Contradictions could add needed nuance to feminist thought-and perhaps ignite change in mothersi overburdened lives."-Phyllis Eckhaus, The Nation "A lucid, probing examination of our culture's contradictory and troubled relationship to motherhood-and how it affects mothers. . . . A thoughtful analysis of the paradoxes that surround mothering. Hays is sensitive to the emotional issues involved-and equally astute in perceiving their sociopolitical context."-Kirkus Reviews "A thoughtful and carefully written new book that provides excellent material for family demography or women's studies courses at the graduate level."-Sandra L. Hofferth, American Journal of Sociology An ideology of 'intensive mothering' exacerbates the inevitable tensions working mothers face, claims sociologist Sharon Hays. While women are expected to be nurturing and unselfish in their role as mothers, they are expected to be competitive and even ruthless at work. Drawing on ideas about mothering since the Middle Ages, on contemporary childrearing manuals, and on in-depth interviews, Hays shows that 'intensive mothering' is a powerful contemporary ideology. These unrealistic expectations of mothers, she suggests, reflect a deep cultural ambivalence about the pursuit of self-interest.
1,992 citations
TL;DR: Hays as mentioned in this paper argues that women are expected to be nurturing and unselfish in their role as mothers, while men are judged to be competitive and even ruthless at work, and these unrealistic expectations of mothers reflect a deep cultural ambivalence about the pursuit of self-interest.
Abstract: \"Hays's intellectually incendiary Cultural Contradictions could add needed nuance to feminist thought-and perhaps ignite change in mothersi overburdened lives.\"-Phyllis Eckhaus, The Nation \"A lucid, probing examination of our culture's contradictory and troubled relationship to motherhood-and how it affects mothers. . . . A thoughtful analysis of the paradoxes that surround mothering. Hays is sensitive to the emotional issues involved-and equally astute in perceiving their sociopolitical context.\"-Kirkus Reviews \"A thoughtful and carefully written new book that provides excellent material for family demography or women's studies courses at the graduate level.\"-Sandra L. Hofferth, American Journal of Sociology An ideology of 'intensive mothering' exacerbates the inevitable tensions working mothers face, claims sociologist Sharon Hays. While women are expected to be nurturing and unselfish in their role as mothers, they are expected to be competitive and even ruthless at work. Drawing on ideas about mothering since the Middle Ages, on contemporary childrearing manuals, and on in-depth interviews, Hays shows that 'intensive mothering' is a powerful contemporary ideology. These unrealistic expectations of mothers, she suggests, reflect a deep cultural ambivalence about the pursuit of self-interest.
1,324 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss how to conceptualize and theorize the nature of the car system that is a particularly key, if surprisingly neglected, element in "globalization".
Abstract: This article is concerned with how to conceptualize and theorize the nature of the ‘car system’ that is a particularly key, if surprisingly neglected, element in ‘globalization’. The article deploys the notion of systems as self-reproducing or autopoietic. This notion is used to understand the origins of the 20th-century car system and especially how its awesome pattern of path dependency was established and exerted a particularly powerful and self-expanding pattern of domination across the globe. The article further considers whether and how the 20th-century car system may be transcended. It elaborates a number of small changes that are now occurring in various test sites, factories, ITC sites, cities and societies. The article briefly considers whether these small changes may in their contingent ordering end this current car system. The article assesses whether such a new system could emerge well before the end of this century, whether in other words some small changes now may produce the very large effect of a new post-car system that would have great implications for urban life, for mobility and for limiting projected climate change.
1,173 citations
"Parental Traffic Safeguarding at Sc..." refers background in this paper
...As a powerful form of mobility, the automobile is: “a self-organizing autopoietic, non-linear system that spreads world-wide, and includes cars, car-drivers, roads, petroleum supplies and many novel objects, technologies and signs” (Urry 2004:27)....
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