Different Worlds of Motoring: Choice, Constraint and Risk in Household Consumption

Abstract

The article shows how the old economic variable of income can be related to spatial location and used to reinforce recent revisionism in sociology which questions the automatic link between consumption and identity. The diversity of motoring experience is demonstrated through a case study of motoring in inner and outer London which draws on a variety of resources, including interviews from two London boroughs, survey evidence on household expenditure and other official statistics. The analysis shows how income and space variably define household motoring experience as one of choice or constraint and risk. The end result is a cultural economy analysis that shows how motoring sustains multiple, overlapping identities in different worlds of enabling and enforced consumption which connect with production. I change cars when I get bored with them (Income quintile 4/5, London household, DB 24) [the] price of petrol means I have had to cut back on a lot of other things (income quintile 2, London household, SH17) Once this one (car) packs in, I can't afford a new one … I will keep it till it packs in (income quintile 1, retired London household, SH10)