After the Car

by Kingsley L. Dennis, John Urry

After the Car

Genres: Sociology, Urban Planning, Cities, Nonfiction

180 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2009

About the author

Kingsley L. Dennis, PhD, is an author and researcher. He is the author of 'Bardo Times'; 'The Sacred Revival: Magic, Mind & Meaning in a Technological Age' (2017): 'The Phoenix Generation' (2014) 'Meeting Monroe' (2013); ‘Breaking the Spell’ (2013); ‘New Revolutions for a Small Planet’ (2012); ‘The Struggle for Your Mind’ (2012); and ‘New Consciousness for a New World’ (2011). He is also the co-author, with Ervin Laszlo, of ‘Dawn of the Akashic Age’ (2013); co-editor, with Ervin Laszlo, of ‘The New Science & Spirituality Reader’ (2012); and co-author, with John Urry, of ‘After the Car’ (2009).


Kingsley worked in the Sociology Dept. at Lancaster University, UK, and has authored numerous articles on social futures; technology, and conscious evolution. As well as academic training Kingsley has also lived and worked for many years overseas, including five years in Turkey. He currently lives in Andalusia, Spain and continues to research, write, travel, and grow his own vegetables.

Reviews

[Kingsley L. Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm giving this 5-stars because, after all, it is my own book. Yet I also wish to be honest by saying - there is no real solution on the horizon...

John Urry and myself did our best, at the time, to explore all the emerging possibilities....and we were the first (as far as I know) to use complexity theory to ground our ideas. We examined the converging influences: technology; energy sources; urban configurations/architecture; demographics; international politics; environmentalism; population; climate change; infrastructure, etc, to try to inform our thinking about how new systems - i.e. transport - could potentially come into being.... I felt that,after all this, we still could not provide enough concrete answers... Perhaps this is the uncertainty of complex systems!

Our world is complex - there are many vested interests and power brokers...and many tipping points to come too. So whilst we did our best in outlining some of the changes to appear in the mix...we still need to 'watch this space'!

[Данило Судин · Rating 4 out of 5]

Якби можна було, то поставив би цій книзі 4,5. Загалом, це непогана футурологія, яка опирається на солідний соціологічний фундамент. Втім, це саме соціологічна футурологія, а не соціологія. Хоча це і гарний приклад "соціології речей" в українському перекладі. Низка понять перекладені доволі цікаво. Наприклад, в тексті є поняття "шляхозалежність", що відповідає path-dependency.

Книжку "Після автомобілізму" читати треба, щоб зрозуміти масштаби змін, які чекають людство до 2050 р. І також її можна читати як науково-популярний виклад теорій Джона Арі про різноманітні природи та види мобільності. Тому тішуся, що українською перекладено цю книгу, адже - судячи з goodreads - інших перекладів наразі немає.

Книга важлива і тим, що дозволяє краще зрозуміти ті труднощі, з якими стикаються будь-які з метою захисту навколишнього середовища. А саме, як зменшити шкоду від автомобілів? Це дуже важко, оскільки останні є важливою складовою сучасної економіки, організації суспільства та стилю життя.
Більш детально про цю книгу - у моєму відеоогляді https://youtu.be/qH326G-DKxA

[Mladen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is occasionally nice to find one of those books that surprises you in a certain way and makes you think about a certain topic from a different perspective. For me, After the Car is one of these books.

After the Car analyzes how the Car system works and tries to forecast how it will operate in the future, focusing mostly on an ecological perspective. The element that I've found most interesting is the fact that the future, which the authors try to predict, has already manifested itself. I've made a sort of fun game out of trying to compare what is different in today's society compared to the text.

The obvious main topic for today is the attempt to overhaul the car system as a whole, and the authors correctly predict the possibility of a systemic switch towards hybrid and electric vehicles, although they suggest other possibilities as well. In 2009, the possibility of electric vehicles becoming mainstream was considered science fiction, at least where I live. So, if I've read this book in 2009, when I was 15, I would have probably considered the authors a bit optimistic.

I've enjoyed the authors' systemic approach towards the concept of "The Car". Especially, analyzing its early beginnings and specifically how electric-powered cars were pushed out from the technological race by the internal combustion engine. Here is a quote I've found amusing, which compares electric and gasoline powered vehicles. But it was written in 1896.

"A popular journal of the time - the Horseless Age - printed much propaganda and rebuttals from the two fuel feuding factions. A well read article from April 1896 praised the virtues of the electric car, saying: 'of course, there is absolutely no odour connected with the electric vehicle, while all the gasoline motors we have seen belch forth from their exhaust pipe a continuous stream of partially unconsumed hydrocarbon in the form of a think smoke with a highly noxious odour."

The fact that the whole debate continued in 2021, and that contemporary times aren't the first time we've compared electric and gasoline vehicles is, to me, mindblowing.

Also, when I say that the authors have a systematic approach, I don't mean it as an idiom for being thorough in their research, they literally analyze the Car as a system. Let me give a brief example. A car for them is not just a woman driving her Ford Fiesta to her job. The Car is a system that was formed through a series of events. Specifically, there was the "decision" to focus on internal combustion engines. That was followed by an attempt to change urban and rural geography so that cars could flow more freely, at the expense of pedestrians. Furthermore, the internal combustion engine directly reflected on the increased value of oil. Also the way we perceive space and time has also changed at an individual level.
The Netherlands is often pointed out as a complete alternative to the urban geography of the US, which is more car-centric. Such as it is, the cycling concept found in the Netherlands shows how differently people act when they are exposed to a different transportation system and urban planning methods.

After analyzing the car, the book continues, focusing on general ecological issues which I've found less captivating, albeit necessary to give a more complete perspective to the topic. That being said, the first half of the book is really its strong side.

Aside from the content, I found the book very easy to read without unnecessary academic jargon, which is sometimes a problem in these kinds of books.

[Claudio Olivares Medina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought that I was reading this book too late. But no. It will help to understand automobility as a system, beyond the object, speed and emissions. Also it is quite interesting contrasting the authors imagined futures 15 years ago, and seeing how some foreseen features have been deployed.

[Nazarii-Andrii Soroka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Книжка описує все в дуже загальних рисах, що не є погано для розуміння контексту. Мені цікаво було аналізувати, як змінилося впровадження технологій від моменту виходу книжки до моменту прочитання.

[Philippe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book offers a broad brush discussion of the future of the complex socio-technical system that has emerged around the automobile. The basic idea underpinning the book is that the car system is ripe for tipping into another regime because of crucial developments such as global warming, peak oil, rapid urbanization and the pervasive digitization of many aspects of economic and social life. However, the fact that it might tip does not mean that the car system will move into a very different form of mass mechanized mobility. Whilst the current regime is under pressure, it has proved to be very resilient over a period of more than a century by locking itself into a key position in the leading economic sectors and social practices of twentieth century capitalism. But the potential for change has never been greater and, if it happens, it will arguably have huge impact on our way of life.

So in trying to paint a picture of where this massive change might go, Dennis and Urry discuss a range of technological and institutional developments that might contribute to the emerging post-car regime: new propulsion mechanisms and materials, `smart' technologies, new mobility policies, alternative living and leisure practices, new ownership and usage patterns. A number of contemporary avant garde models are showcased to make the future of personal mobility more tangible. These models range from Bremen's clever transport system to the Transition Town Movement to Norman Foster's Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

In a final chapter a set of three scenarios is offered to explore the shape of the post-car regime in a more distant future: 1) an `eco-communalist' future based on a network of downscaled, self-reliant communities under the aegis of `small is beautiful'. Mobility is severely restricted because of resource scarcity, 2) an apocalyptic future of `regional warlordism' where society fragments in violent factions resisting an autocratic elite. Mobility is restricted to the `happy few', and 3) a future in which personal mobility will be meshed with pervasive digital networks of control. The ability to move will be constrained at it will come at the cost of a significant loss of privacy.

Whilst the book offers a concise and informative traverse of a fascinating subject area, it has a number of shortcomings. Its brevity is a boon for time-constrained readers but it comes at the cost of both depth and comprehensiveness. There are important developments - such as the introduction of ultra-cheap mass-produced vehicles (Tata Nano) or the economics of personal carbon allowances - that receive very short shrift. Also, the argument is developed from a social sciences, not from an engineering perspective. The authors describe but do not critically assess the relative merits of various technological options. Furthermore, I appreciate the complex systems perspective that underpins the narrative but there is a lot of relatively recent research on the dynamics governing system-wide transitions that would allow for a more nuanced discussion. Now the argument basically boils down to the rather generic `system in a self-critical state + disruptive innovation = new mobility regime'. Finally, I was disappointed by the final scenarios chapter which connects awkwardly to the discussion that precedes it. Suddenly the security implications of global climate change move in as a dominant driver and one wonders why this hasn't been broached earlier. The scenarios are also rather stereotypical: the `catastrophe if we do nothing', the `command and control' and the `self-organization' stories have been turning up in various guises in many scenario exercises over the last 15 years. As a whole the book provides an interesting scaffolding for an imaginative and systemic reflection on the future of personal mobility but this is something that is left to the reader to complete.

[Lloyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting offer from two British Sociologists at opposite ends of their careers. They consider the rise and rise of travel by automobile while wondering how and why such a dirty, inefficient mode of transport exists so universally when mind-blowing advances have been made on so many other fronts. The internal-combustion engine will, someday soon, have to be superseded and Dennis and Urry, a renowned Routledge author and editor, close this short book by soothsaying three vignettes from the future, one of which is a terrifying, and not entirely inconceivable, Mad Max-esque 'Regional Warlordism'.

A credible, if overpriced, book which will make you cringe at our continued inability to deal with, and react to, the reality that our inaction will have a devastating effect upon the lives of future generations. Putting out our green bins once a fortnight just isn't going to do the trick; we should instead prepare for the type of sacrifices which will generate a 90 per cent cut in carbon emissions, which would result in:

"the end of distant foreign holidays, unless you are prepared to take a long time getting there. It means that business meetings must take place over the internet or by video conferences... It means that journeys around the world must be reserved for visiting the people you love, and that they will require both slow travel and saving up of car rations. It means the end of shopping trips to New York, parties in Ibiza, second homes in Tuscany ... unless you believe these activities are worth the sacrifice of the biosphere and the lives of the poor.'

[Jdu FFH · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are looking for a comprehensive overview of the societal impacts of the car and the possible scenarios in which both society and cars will evolve, this is your book. Urry & Kingsley are well-versed and spot-on when it comes to contemporary developments regarding the car and its role on the streets and in society as a whole. But at the same time they are doom-mongering prophets, speculating wildly on all kinds of more or less ghastly futures. Maybe I’m overstating here, but I constantly got the feeling the authors really needed to tell us something that we must know, or already should have known last time we drove, bought or saw a car.

For me as an urban planner, a lot of subjects and developments were already pretty familiar. This might also have to do with the fact that the book is from 2009; it is hard to judge if back then the book did address truly new subjects that by now have become more mainstream, or if it already was mainstream in 2009.

[Barbara Smith-Stoff]

What I have come to thinking seriously about is that we need to think of creating a sustainable and friendly social system which will not be dependent on the car. Big re-think is necessary here.