From “market agencements” to “vehicular agencies”: insights from the quantitative observation of consumer logistics

Abstract

The authors propose a study of “vehicular agencies,” which are defined as hybrid moving entities comprising individuals and their possessions (e.g. a consumer, the bags she carries, and the clothes and other items she wears). Today, it is such assemblages that direct the course of action, rather than the people or the things they are made of. After presenting the theoretical contribution of the paper (i.e. defining vehicular agencies as short-range “actor-networks” and “market agencements”) and the quantitative observation method liable to capture these moving entities (i.e. filming and coding the material and social constituencies of the observed population) based on video records, the authors trace the logics of action that animate these vehicular agencies. They conclude in stressing the potential of this approach and topic, both for research purposes and public policy.

Keywords:

• consumer logistics
• vehicular agency
• market agencements
• interaction
• consumer bags
• actor-network theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This paper is an adapted, revised, and updated version of a paper previously published in French in the journal Réseaux (Cochoy and Calvignac 2013).

2. These may be bags, boxes, sachets, etc.; in short, all sorts of containers.

3. High-definition camera Sony HDR-CX550VE.

4. No ethics statement is required for this work: our video recordings were made in public areas; the procedure fully respects people's privacy since the images are not shown but exploited indirectly. We do not use any personal data, except very broad dimensions such as gender and age, and we report only about aggregate measurements, so that the persons behind the data remain fully anonymous.

5. There are 477 vehicular agencies belonging to a group: 372 duos, 70 trios, and 35 larger groups.

6. The averaging was performed according to the 28 time slots studied from 7 am to 9 pm on Thursday (14 slots) and Saturday (14 slots). The average is 137 passages/15 minutes.

7. The low number of slung-over carriers is most likely explained by the additional conscious effort and physical manipulation it requires as opposed to the straight-carrying position, which is easier to implement and therefore probably adopted as a first, “automatic” solution.

8. It should be noted that there are more bags with shorter straps that cannot be crossed over the body than bags with long straps that can be positioned as desired.