Settler Colonial Automobilities: A Distinct Constellation of Automobile Cultures?

Authors

Georgine W. Clarsen, University of WollongongFollow
Lorenzo Veracini, Swinburne UniversityFollow

RIS ID

77225

Publication Details

Clarsen, G. W. and Veracini, L. (2012). Settler Colonial Automobilities: A Distinct Constellation of Automobile Cultures?. History Compass, 10 (12), 889-900.

Abstract

A growing body of scholarship employs the concept of ‘automobility’ to understand the practices, meanings and values with which cars have become invested. Analysis of settler colonial phenomena has also recently cohered into a distinctive transnational research strand. This article aims to integrate the findings of these two previously unconnected scholarly agendas in order to ask the following questions: can the existence of a distinct settler colonial form of automobility culture be hypothesised; can a distinct notion of ‘settler colonial automobility’ be construed and profitably compared with other automobility traditions and, if so, what are its key characteristics? Given its inherently composite nature, this article aims to contribute to scholarly debates on both transnational automobilities and on settler colonial phenomena.