Aspirations for automobility: Family geographies and the production of young people’s aspirations for cars

Abstract

Whilst a burgeoning body of research explores how families shape children’s everyday experiences, less is known about how families influence children’s future aspirations. Drawing upon two research projects exploring children’s mobility, this paper explores children and young people’s aspirations for cars in adulthood. The paper considers what these aspirations can tell us about current and future relationships between children, siblings and parents. The paper draws upon the concept of habitus to demonstrate how expectations around future car ownership are not aspatial- aspirations are informed by locally derived cultures of parenting and local economic, political and planning contexts. In doing so, the paper critiques broader theorisations of automobility which assume an independent, autonomous adult. Instead, the paper points to an understanding of the role that families play in developing relationally produced aspirations about cars.