‘The car indispensable’: the hidden influence of the car in inter-war suburban London

Law, Michael John

doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2012.04.005

Cited by 8 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

(1 reference statement)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In contrast, academic or wider cultural treatments of walking -especially in a car dominated society-are notably scarce (Jones et al, 2012, Moran, 2006, as is recognition of the contribution of automobility in the UK (Law, 2012).…”

Section: Cultures Of Automobilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Wells

Xenias

2015

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Cultures Of Automobilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Wells

Xenias

2015

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Much of this infrastructural investment is likely to drive the continued extension of urban spatial forms through the construction of large‐scale energy, transportation, ICT, water and waste systems, or support swiftly expanding informal development and settlement patterns surrounding sprawling global megacities (Keil ). Infrastructure established the conditions for the historical expansion of urban centres and the integration/marginalisation of peripheral communities into the wider urban fabric (Beauregard ; Fishman ; Gandy ; Harris ; Law ). The urban periphery remains a crucial frontier for both infrastructural innovation and stress.…”

Section: Introduction: (Beyond) ‘Chaotic Concepts’mentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorising suburban infrastructure: a framework for critical and comparative analysis

Addie

2016

Trans Inst British Geog

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Suburban infrastructure holds a position of increasing geographic, political and conceptual importance in a rapidly urbanising world. However, the analytical significance of ‘suburban infrastructure’ risks becoming bogged down as a chaotic concept amid the maelstrom of contemporary peripheral urban growth and the explosion of interest in infrastructure in critical urban studies. This paper develops an open and flexible comparative theory of suburban infrastructure. I eschew concerns with definitional bounding to focus analytical attention on the relations between ‘the suburban’ (broadly considered) and multiple hard and soft infrastructures. These relations are captured in two ‘three‐dimensional’ dialectical triads: the first unpacks the modalities of infrastructure in, for and of suburbs; the second discloses the political economic processes (suburbanisation), lived experience (suburbanism) and dynamics of mediation internalised by particular suburban infrastructures. Bringing these conceptual frames together constructs a nine‐cell matrix that: (1) functions as a heuristic device providing conceptual clarity when discussing the suburbanity of infrastructures; (2) promotes comparative analysis across diverse global suburban contexts; and (3) develops tools to foreground the dialectical relations internalised in the concrete sociospatial modalities of suburban infrastructure. The paper shows that suburban infrastructure can only ever be partially suburban as a result of its co‐constituted and over‐determined production. I conclude by suggesting how the proposed approach may be mobilised to reimagine and reclaim suburban infrastructure as a crucial context and vital mechanism underpinning a progressive polycentric suburban spatial polity.

show abstract

“…From this alone it can be said that the garage is a fundamental feature within the history of the built environment of suburban areas of London. There has been extensive discussion of the re-modelling of the suburban landscapes, and specifically the development of garages in suburban areas (Clapson 2003;Whitehand 1991 Whilst there is significant credit given the rail and Underground network in enabling this expansion (Jackson 1978), less is given to the similar role played by the private motorcar in the social and spatial development of London except Law (2012), although this is widely appreciated in studies of the US, Australia and elsewhere (Bullard at al. 2000;Cohen 2004;Kane et al 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suburban built form and street network development in London, 1880–2013: An application of quantitative historical methods

Dhanani

2016

Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdiscipli

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article describes the methods and findings of a study examining the architectural and spatial development of two of London's suburbs over the past century. Historical analysis of urban growth is constrained by a lack of geographic data that can be used to produce chronologies of analysable geographic data. This study, utilising historical geographic data reconstruction techniques, shows that the single most significant development in architectural form in the study areas is that of the garage, signifying expanded personal mobility potentials coupled to car-oriented road infrastructure developments during the study period. It suggests that an urban history must account for the role of personal mobility technologies in such studies. Furthermore, the implementation of methods for creating usable longitudinal geographic datasets allows for increased insight into the nuances of the urban developmental processes.

show abstract

‘The car indispensable’: the hidden influence of the car in inter-war suburban London

Cited by 8 publications

References 1 publication

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

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

Theorising suburban infrastructure: a framework for critical and comparative analysis

Suburban built form and street network development in London, 1880–2013: An application of quantitative historical methods

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About