John Urry

This book is directly relevant to my PhD project, I have a lot of thoughts about it, and thus there is a real danger that this review could turn into a mini-dissertation. To prevent this, I'm imposing bullet points on myself.

Four elements of this book that I found especially interesting and helpful:

- Automobility as a dominant system, taking over from railways, which in turn took over from walking in the nineteenth century. This understanding draws on complexity theory, which suggests that show more the dominance of a particular system will only break at a nearly-impossible-to-foresee tipping point.

- The implications that each system change has had for time. Railways imposed a single national clock time and their timetables instituted a social norm of punctuality. Conversely, cars have imposed a fragmented, flexible sense of time, made of many tiny moments all of which must be used productively lest they be wasted. Latterly, mobile phones have wholly undermined the concept of punctuality by creating the conditions for flexible, fluid social arrangements, which have become (to my personal annoyance) the norm.

- Network capital as a more complex, nuanced basis for inequality comparisons to be made. Although naturally more difficult to calculate (that said, a more detailed methodology could be worked up and probably already has been), it offers a huge improvement on the crudity of GDP per capita.

- The nature of airports as peculiar spaces of surveillance, control, homogeneity of place but enormous heterogeneity of people. Urry's analysis reads well with Rem Koolhaas on 'The Generic City'; both comment that urban space is becoming more and more like an airport.

A criticism I would make:

- I have no objections to the content of the book, but deplore the tendency in sociology to turn nouns into verbs. It sounds so awkward! Also, the proof reader of this book seems to have stopped paying attention about halfway through, letting through some careless errors (GDP per capital, huh?). This did not undermine my interest in nor enjoyment of the book, however I am a pedant and notice such things.

Also, a caution:

- This book was published in 2007 and thus the chapter on communications already reads as somewhat quaint. Smartphones, cheap laptops, tablets, facebook, twitter, apps, etc have all eventuated since. Nonetheless, it does predict that communications technology will continue to become more mobile, further embedded in lifestyles, and will continue to entrench commoditisation and surveillance (cf PRISM et al).


My favourite aspect:

- That it ended with two scenarios of the future seen through the mobility lens, both of which are dystopian. Urry, like me, takes the view that either climate change will result in systemic collapse or the worst vagaries will be averted by policy interventionism. (The latter scenario is very well illustrated by MacLeod's novel 'Intrusion'.) Thus, Urry is certain that the inevitability of automobility will be broken, either by a generalised environmental and social disaster, or by government interventionism. My PhD is about the latter scenario.

To quote from the final page:

'...mobility futures seem poised between a breakdown of many systems and networks through the multiple feedback loops of global heating and a world in where the systems and networks work only too well in 'securing' many mobilities and especially the car system, and 'securing' peoples within multiple panoptic environments.

...the analysis [...] suggests that global futures are poised between an Orwellian or a Hobbesian future, between the devil and the deep blue sea.'

In conclusion:

- I can't judge how accessible this book is to the general reader, but I found it fairly easy to read and well-argued. Sociology perspectives on mobility make for a lovely breath of fresh air amongst the tedious, narrow, endlessly quantitative economic methodologies that abound in transport literature. show less

I find this book phenomenally interesting and by far deserves more attention. Yes, it's about postmodern reality - how we percept various proceduralities and what in between. What traffic flow is, what air/ship/road routes are, what lines of communications are. Urry gives us a progressive sight on sociological construction where we can see interrelations vicarious essences of humanity.

Tämä englanniksi vuonna 2011 julkaistu teos on edelleen valitettavan ajankohtainen ja pitänyt kutinsa, vaikka kirjoitushetken jälkeen joistakin seikoista ont luonnollisestikin saatu uutta tietoa ja kokonaiskuva on entisestään tarkentunut. Suositeltavaa luettavaa kaikille, jotka haluavat ymmärtää ilmastonmuutoksen yhteiskunnallisia seurauksia.

Está en dnx