The Sociology of Car Crashes

I went to a talk by Professor Tony Giddens on climate change earlier this evening - more about that tomorrow. For now I will offer this very brief example of what sociology can do. According to Prof. Giddens some 40million people have died in traffic accidents since the invention of the car. That is, Giddens gently pointed out, more than those killed in World Wars I and II. As Giddens said, that is quite a price to pay for mobility. Well, when you put it like that…....

Why do I think this is a good example of what sociology can do? Because a simple statistic, about something we all think we know about, can suddenly change and challenge our preconceptions or point of view, cast doubt on our ‘taken for granted’ assumptions. Other styles of sociology talk about ‘defamiliarisation’, but it’s all the same thing really. It’s a nice illustration too, of the best sort of empirical sociology.

Two references from Giddens on the sociology of the motor car (sorry they are rather sketchy but just Google them - I think I found a pdf on cars/similar theme by Urry the other day)

John Urry, - After the Car

MIT - Disinventing the Automobile (yes MIT is the author name - it stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology - guess its some collective publication)