The microsociology of automobility: the production of the automobile self

Abstract

Drivers and automobiles are frequently represented in the automobility studies literature as hybrid human–machine cyborg assemblages. A concurrent theme within the automobility literature has been the disciplinary processes by which the automobile self is constructed; here, however, it is assumed that the self to be investigated is the self of the driver, not the self of the car-driver entity. In this paper, a neo-Goffmanian account of the construction of this cyborg self is developed. This provides a complementary theoretical framework to those based on the work of Michel Foucault to account for the production of the automobile self.

Keywords:

• Automobiles
• automobility
• cyborgs
• microsociology
• social interaction
• road safety

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank two anonymous referees for their insightful and constructive comments.