Stopping the ‘War on the Car’: Neoliberalism, Fordism, and the Politics of Automobility in Toronto

Abstract

This article interrogates the politics of automobility in Toronto under the regime of mayor Rob Ford, who came to power in 2010 promising to 'stop the war on the car.' The election of Ford, and the thrust of his subsequent agenda, came as a surprise to many in the city, due to Toronto's reputation as a cosmopolitan diverse transit-friendly global city. The Toronto case study allows for the analysis of the relationships between Fordism, automobility, and the politics and rationalities of neoliberalism. Instead of seeing neoliberalism as something external or imposed, its contested politics are rooted in diverging social and economic interests directly derived from Fordism and the system of automobility, with opposing political-economic factions both drawing on different elements of neoliberalism. Authoritarian populist neoliberal regimes like the Ford administration in Toronto, and the roll-back austerity they promote, are not antithetical to automobile Fordism, but on the contrary represent an attempt to protect and reinvigorate it in the face of the forces of de-industrialization and financialization. As such they receive their support from social groups irrevocably invested in the continuation, and irrationalities, of the Fordist system of automobility. This has implications for how the politics of neoliberalism might unfold in the future.

From ‘freedom of the open road’ to ‘cocooning’: Understanding resistance to change in personal private automobility

“…Embedded within socio-technical transitions analysis is the recognition that behaviours, practices, norms and values are all shaped by and in turn help shape technologies -and indeed can be an important part of the selfregulating dynamic stability exhibited by socio-technical systems (Klinger et al, 2013). However, while issues of governance, regulation, technology, political contestation and market framing are given attention in the literature, the cultural meanings and normative practices with regard to material objects are rather less well developed (Marletto, 2014;Walks, 2014). Hence in this paper we bring to bear on the question of the transition to sustainable mobility an initial and exploratory outline of the ways in which cultures of automobility have shifted over time and place, the empirical manifestation of which is a continuing commitment to mass car ownership and use.…”

2. In What Sense Suburban Infrastructure?

“…We can approach the 'infrastructure of suburbs' both through the production, lived experience, or appropriation of networked space, and discourses that construct suburbs in relation to infrastructures normatively understood as 'suburban' -e.g. auto-mobility as a suburban way of life (Walks, 2015); homeownership, privatism and neoliberal spatial polity ( [Peck, 2011). • Infrastructure for suburbs, finally, are the material and social elements shaping the resource flows necessary to support suburban growth and ways of life.…”

Placing Transport Workers on the Agenda: The Conflicting Logics of Governing Mobility on Bishkek's Marshrutkas

“…Similarly, urban transport researchers pay attention to the uneven social effects of neoliberal transport policies (Walks ) and reveal a tendency to favour affluent populations and interest groups, sometimes in disregard of the broader public interest or of marginalised citizens (Farmer ; Kirouac‐Fram ; Qamhaieh and Chakravarty ). Even systematic longitudinal studies only marginally appraise the importance of the structural and institutional strengths and weaknesses of labour in shaping urban transportation systems (Farmer and Noonan )—all in spite of otherwise dynamically uncovering how capitalism privileges exchange value over use value, thus degrading mass transport.…”