[Book Review] The Psychology of the Car: Automobile Admiration, Attachment and Addiction by Stefan Gössling (Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2017))

Warren, James (2018). [Book Review] The Psychology of the Car: Automobile Admiration, Attachment and Addiction by Stefan Gössling (Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2017)). Journal of Transport Geography, 69 p. 308.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2018.03.006

Abstract

How much of our daily lives are influenced and co-constructed by the paradigm of automobility as originally conceptualised by Urry (2004). This is just one of the big questions that the author attempts to address within the book. Many readers of the Journal of Transport Geography will find this book interesting and provocative as it tends to open up many questions for further work and debate. The author's skillful framing of the exploration of cars and our relationships towards these artefacts and all their associated complex webs addresses many issues. By viewing the car and society through various facets such as car admiration, technical and cultural glamorization, and our attachment and subsequent addiction to automobiles Gössling rises to the challenge of achieving a more sustainable form of automobility.