The U.S. car colossus and the production of inequality

The Bottlenecks of Free Trade: Paraguay's Mau Cars and Contraband Markets in the Triple Frontier

“…He would drive them while he compiled their F18 nationalization dossier and finalize the cedulación once he had a buyer lined up. Because the value of cars appreciated if their documents could be converted from mau to a cédula verde—as opposed to depreciating in most other contexts (e.g., Lutz )—this was a fairly common and quite remunerative business model. He positioned himself as a bottleneck at the center of a highly networked web of finance, vehicles, and laws that saturated the border zone.…”

An Anthropology of Parking: Infrastructures of Automobility, Work, and Circulation

“…It is no secret that cars and their infrastructures are heavily subsidized, including when it comes to free parking (Shoup ; Lutz :240). Most of the parking space in Bucharest is free.…”

“…As cars become increasingly visible agents in contemporary cities throughout the world, finding parking spaces for them offers work to a significant number of these cities' low‐skilled, disenfranchised residents. Although there is a substantial anthropological literature on cars and the infrastructures of automobility, the utilitarian emphasis on flow and car movement has prevented the ethnographic gaze from being brought to bear on parking (Sheller and Urry ; Miller ; Redshow ; Dalakoglou ; Frederick ; Lee , ; Klaeger ; Lamont ; Larkin ; Yazıcı ; Lipset and Handler ; Lutz ; Monroe ; Stuesse and Coleman ; Bishara ). When anthropologists engage cars ethnographically, they imagine them in movement, although this represents only a limited part of anyone's possession of an automobile and of its lifecycle in general.…”

Citizens or Customers? Transit Agency Approaches to Community Engagement

“…As a public service and utility, it provides access to quality-of-life issues, including access to healthcare, cultural institutions, education facilities, and employment opportunities. Public transportation also has the potential to alleviate societal ills such as environmental degradation, traffic congestion, the regressive nature of the cost of private vehicle ownership and maintenance, and the physical isolation of the young, older adults, and persons with lower incomes (Lutz 2014). Therefore, public transportation in the United States is an indispensable component of community development and social improvement efforts.…”