Alienation and Mobility

Abstract

This paper will explore matters of alienation in personal mobility. It begins by outlining the present car system that dominates and has led to transport becoming an increasingly large issue terms of sustainability. The car system will then be located within the process of reification, an approach to alienation that identifies the car as a capitalist commodity pushed onto ordinary people. The paper will go on to explore the legacy that these developments have had on the twenty-first century landscape with cities made for cars and a countryside rendered car dependant. Possible alternatives to overcome the current car system will be identified, paying specific regard to schemes in Finland and Wales. The paper suggests that mobility should be construed as a common right and that there is a need to see past the current car system.