Automobilism in Wallonia and Montreal: A practice-based approach

Panel: 6. Transport and mobility

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Amelie Anciaux, UCLouvain, Belgium
Julie Castreman, UCLouvain, Belgium

Abstract

In Europe and North America, the car is the most popular mode of transportation. What make this practice successful despite its highly negative impact on the environment? To answer this question, this research focuses on the accelerators and brakes that drive automobility. The originality of this research is that it uses the theories of social practices as a conceptual framework whose particularity is to consider the practice (and its components) as a unit of analysis.

Thus, this paper addresses material, political, administrative, social and family dimensions as well as their interactions to better understand the persistence of daily automobile use. Based on a mixed method using data collected between 2014 and 2019 in French-speaking Belgium and Canada, the results show an interdependence between the practice of automobility and other essential practices of daily life (work, shopping, leisure, etc.) but also the existing influence of relatives (especially spouses and children) and the role of companies and governments in maintaining daily car use. The combination of all these elements maintains the practice of automobility the dominant mode of transportation for both the Montreal and the Wallonia population.

The objective of this research is to show the relevance of going beyond the individual dimension in the study of factors and contexts favouring the adoption of practices with a lower impact on the environment: sustainability is played out at all levels and to encourage it, no dimension and no contributor should be omitted.

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