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Abstract
In modern society, spatial mobility is highly valued with its relationship to individual freedom (freedom to travel anywhere at anytime, freedom to choose one's relationships, freedom of residential location, etc.). Spatial mobility has become so crucial that it has become an established ideology, putting pressure on individuals to expand their mobility and be able to adapt to spatial changes of living and working conditions (delocalisation of jobs, closing of local public services, etc.). In this context, the capacity to be mobile, or the notion of motility, is a deciding factor of social integration. How can motility be characterised? Which aspects must be taken into account in conducting a comparative analysis of an individual's motility? How does motility constitute a factor of social differentiation? Our article aims to render the concept of motility operational. Building on an exploratory qualitative study, we will explain the factors defining an individual's potential to be mobile within a geographic space in the perspective of the organisation of daily life. Three aspects will be discussed: the access rights portfolios each individual has developed, their aptitudes for mobility, and their representations that define the cognitive appropriation of transportation supply. The rationales explaining why and how the motility of individuals is created or unaffected are also considered. Finally, our article demonstrates that motility is indeed a form of capital, similar to economic, social, or cultural capital, present as a factor in social differentiation that modern sociology cannot disregard.
Acknowledgement
The authors wish to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne for financing the study referred to in this article.
Notes
1. The reference to the concept of mixed forms here refers to these new forms of mobility no longer related to specific social temporalities in the same way as the ‘fundamental’ forms of mobility that sociology has identified and studied in the past (i.e. the day and the week for daily mobility, the month and the year for journeys, the year and the life‐cycle for residential mobility and life history for migration). These different forms are naturally interdependent.
2. In spite of the problems caused, mobility is not called into question. It rather holds a ‘mythological’ status, using the words of philosopher Hans Saner (see his paper in Dietiker & Regli, Citation1998).
3. The ‘general abonnement’, or unlimited travel pass sold by the Swiss Federal Railways, gives bearers free access to the entire Swiss railway network (with the exception of a few tourist lines) and also to most city transport networks in Switzerland.
4. As its name suggests, the half‐fare card gives the bearer a 50% discount off all individual railway fares. The Voie 7 pass allows young people under age 25 to travel for free everyday from 7 pm to midnight.
5. We consider that the analogy with a portfolio of financial assets is valid for several reasons. First, although the composition of this assortment is the result of sporadic choices to acquire, renew or give up certain access rights, these sporadic choices are generally part of a strategy of optimisation of an individual's capacity for movement, or rather a strategy of optimisation of individual capacities for movement of different members of a single household. Individual strategy increasingly often also includes the idea of controlling uncertainty and that certain access rights are purchased less because of a wish to use them, and more caused by a desire to ‘guarantee’ that one is able to deal with exceptional situations by acquiring ‘excess motility’ (as well as true freedom of modal choice). Finally, as with financial asset management, any change within an access rights' portfolio implies, in principle, significant transaction costs, an aspect that Markus Petersen has widely explored in his writings (see for example Petersen, Citation1993, Citation2003).
6. Philosopher Hans Saner considers that the birth of this new value that is central to the value system of Western society can be traced back to the publication of the first report of the ‘Club of Rome’, in 1972. Initially, this publication popularised a new form of environmental asceticism, by lobbying on the part of environmental groups, among others. Subsequently, the search for a global synthesis between the environment and the right to development in the countries of the South led to the evolution of this value towards the concept of sustainability, which is the dominant aspect in debates today (see Saner's essay in Dietiker & Regli, Citation1998).
7. The cost structure for automobile ownership is mainly comprised of fixed costs, while the cost structure for renting comprises predominantly variable costs. This difference is favourable for private ownership if the car is used frequently and favourable for hiring if it is used rarely or moderately.
8. In our view, the concept of location strategy refers to the fact that individuals and households are obliged to set priorities and accept compromises in the choices of location that define their normal living spaces (residential location, workplace, favourite shops, etc.). In other words, they must plan to use the available resources to attain specific goals in a system of location constraints (Bonvalet & Fribourg, Citation1990). This latter observation deserves credit for defining the limits of application of the concept of ‘strategy’. Apparently, this concept is invalid for both the wealthiest and poorest segments of the population. The former have enough available resources to be able to satisfy practically every wish and thus do not have to make choices, while the latter have almost no room to manoeuvre in their location choices (Bonvalet & Dureau, Citation2000).
9. Driver's licences represent the only socially instituted form of a ‘certificate of aptitude’ in mobility. These certificates of aptitude are defined in national regulations that define a certain number of vehicle categories, minimum ages, and procedures governing the learning process and the examinations.
10. We nonetheless highlight that if we take into account the physiological deficiencies that have a less decisive effect on the capacity for movement, such as obesity, heart problems or asthma, this aspect becomes a motility criterion applying to large sections of the population.
11. Most take for granted an individual's general knowledge and skills that comprise an essential foundation for their capacity for movement (for example, good knowledge of the local language or a ‘universal’ language, such as English, knowledge of the customs of the country in question, etc.). Nevertheless, even if we restrict our analysis to travel that can be qualified as daily and disregard exceptional mobility (business trips or leisure trips abroad), this hypothesis does not prove valid in all cases. For example, Eric Le Breton (Citation2002) showed that this aspect can contribute to the immobility of poor and immigrant populations.
12. In reality, although such experience usually allows the driver to feel at ease behind the wheel of his or her vehicle, it proves to be insufficient in a context of true risk control. Experience does not necessarily lead to expertise, especially with respect to all the aspects of driving for which feedback is quite rare. While accidents or close calls are a rather infrequent experience, drivers may easily overestimate their own driving abilities (Duncan et al., Citation1991).
13. The importance of past experience is emphasised if we consider how specific acquired aptitudes are. As control over a given space and the skills used to time a journey are linked to a specific geographical context, a person must repeat all the stages of learning each time he or she changes environments. Additionally, the more radical the lifestyle change, the more effort the re‐learning process will require (for example, after having moved to a foreign country in which traffic practices are very different, such as driving on the left or on the right, the extent to which signalling is practised, etc.). The aptitudes acquired for one mode of travel are only partially ‘transferable’ to other modes.
14. We refer to all the learning processes involved in the development of people's mobility behaviour. Individuals acquire representations, attitudes and habits that determine their mobility behaviour, as well as their relationships to different means of transport from very early in childhood, through their interaction with others (upbringing, influence of siblings and peers, etc.), and through their own experience of their environment (Limbourg et al., Citation2000).
15. Currently, practically all children learn to ride a bike, since it is a very commonplace leisure activity. However, the number of children who learn to truly use the bicycle independently as a means of transport (to go to school, for example, or to a friend's or extracurricular activities) is probably much smaller, especially in city areas where routes have not been made secure.
16. Several factors could explain why people abandon the idea of expanding their capacity for movement by learning to use new means of transport as they get older: stabilisation of modal habits, meaning that acquiring new durable experiences is improbable, a desire to devote their time and energy to other everyday issues, set ideas about different means of transport, exaggerated representations of the risks involved (especially in the case of two‐wheeled transport), etc. Of course, in cases of an absolute necessity, people are usually prepared to learn how to use a new form of travel until late in their life‐course (for example in response to handicaps which arise with age).
17. According to a survey devoted specifically to the mobility of handicapped people (Poulenat‐Aballea & Tarrius, Citation1979), the consequences of certain types of handicap cannot be ascertained ‘mechanically’. For example, by identifying the degree to which the function of walking alone has been damaged (paraplegics, etc.), the degree of damage to the functions of walking and grasping (hemiplegics, tetraplegics, etc.) or even the damage to the sensory organs (the blind, deaf, etc.), since the resultant capacity for movement depends on many other factors when the handicap occurred (both in terms of the person's life‐cycle – a 10‐year‐old and a 50‐year‐old cannot derive the same benefits from physical therapy – and in absolute terms – physical therapy techniques used today did not always exist 50 years ago), the person's attitude towards his or her handicap, their financial situation (ability to buy technical accessories, such as a specially adapted car), or the residential surroundings. For example, accessibility is better in town than in the country, because handicaps have been taken into account more broadly in terms of roads and infrastructure.
18. We refer to the fact that an individual cannot cognitively grasp the entirety of his or her world without endangering their own sanity.
19. We should recall here that predictability implies personal skills and knowledge based on accumulated experience of the ‘field’. For example, concerning individual means of transportation, we witness the capacity to estimate the duration of the journey, knowledge of available parking near the destination, spatial control, etc. For public transport, we can identify the capacity to interpret a schedule, capacity for orientation in the transportation network, ‘intuitive’ knowledge of delays, etc. This develops in greater detail the interdependence between skills and cognitive appropriation.
20. For example, our interviews lead us to believe that, in people who learned how to ride a motorised two‐wheeled vehicle when they were young, the fact of starting a family and having children usually sharpens their personal sense of responsibility, conflicting openly with the risk that riding a motorcycle represents. It is therefore probably not rare for the motorcycle to be given up, especially when used for functional reasons (independence, rapidity in town) and a little less frequently in cases of a veritable passion for motorcycle riding. However, the passion is then ‘tempered’ as far as risk‐taking is concerned.
21. In concrete terms, young children form their initial representations of means of transportation under the behavioural influence of their parents. In the adolescent years, the influence of siblings and peers is probably greater, to such an extent that young people may develop representations that oppose those of their parents, for example, with respect to motor scooters or public transportation. Finally, in adulthood, the greatest influence undoubtedly comes from partners, spouses, one's own children becoming independent and affirming their preferences, etc.
22. As an example, it is undeniable that social representations of the automobile and public transport, radically opposed concerning travel independence (according to the equation ‘automobile = freedom’ and ‘public transport = constraint’), influence individual representations of transportation modes. In this respect, personal experience alone will allow an individual to develop a sense of criticism and, in the case of contradictory experiences, counter the preconceived ideas conveyed by collective representations.
23. The consideration of a transportation mode as ‘environmentally‐friendly’ is essentially the result of a social process. While this label is supported by knowledge gathered by scientific experts, in reality, it is only the result of a complex political game in which numerous actors take part (elected leaders, scientific experts, environmental organisations, the media, international institutions, etc.) that the importance of specific environmental pollution is socially validated (Littig, Citation1995).
24. Cognitive dissonance refers to the state of tension that an individual finds themselves in after having perceived an inconsistency between their attitude and their behaviour with respect to an object or situation. As soon as the number of inconsistent cognitive elements outweighs the number of consistent elements, cognitive dissonance triggers the use of strategies destined to eliminate tension (the search for new information on the object in question, modification of the person's attitude with respect to it, a change in the evaluation of a situation, etc.) (Fröhlich, Citation1997).
25. Cognitive dissonance in a survey situation can lead to respondents biasing their answers, for example, justifying their travel mode preferences by giving reasons that support the option chosen or criticising the options not chosen, even if these reasons did not really influence their choices (Kaufmann, Citation2000, p.84).
26. By network of usual places, we mean all the places an individual visits on a recurring basis, as well as the routes he or she usually takes between these fixed geographical points, thus forming a system. The pertinence of this concept lies in both its descriptive value and its contribution to a reflection on the genesis of individuals' travel practices (Flamm, Citation2004, pp.178–202).
27. Researchers should therefore question people on their will to develop a lifestyle based on the contiguity of places of residence and activities, on the importance they attribute to the accessibility of public transport services, and finally, on the disdain (or other attitude) they manifest with regard to traffic and parking difficulties in town. These three subjects of discussion will provide indications as to the existence of a decisive travel mode preference for respectively proximity means of transport (e.g. walking, cycling, etc.), public transport or the automobile.