Samochód.Tożsamość, wolność i przestrzeń
Car. Identity, Freedom and Space

Author(s): Zbyszko Melosik
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Education
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Adama Mickiewicza
Keywords: car; freedom; space; masculinity; femininity; dangerous driving; luxury
Summary/Abstract: The book is devoted to one of the most spectacular socio-cultural phenomena of the 20th and 21st century. Its protagonist is the car: not so much as a technology (although this is also the case), but as an integral component of identity, both for individuals and for entire societies. The author presents the car from many, often contradictory, perspectives, and assumes that the car is ambiguous, thus providing extremely rich possibilities for interpreting related problems and phenomena. The publication is divided into six chapters. The first deals with the social and psychological aspects of cars and driving, in terms of humans' changing relationship to time and space. Chapters Two and Three relate to the role of cars in the construction of femininity and masculinity; they show the dynamics of gender relations in the context of the 'struggle for meaning'. The fourth chapter analyses the different contexts of dangerous driving and car theft. Chapter Five consists of four detailed 'car' case studies representing different socio-cultural images of the car: the Swedish Volvo, Italian Ferrari, Japanese Toyota and East German Trabant. The final chapter is devoted to the relationship between the car and social status.

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