{"title":"‘Social Darwinism has moved to the cycle path’: framings of micromobility in the Dutch and British press","authors":"Clara Glachant , Frauke Behrendt","doi":"10.1080/17450101.2024.2366850","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The media’s agenda-setting function in terms of selecting and presenting issues to the public and policymakers is crucial for the urgently needed transition towards more sustainable mobilities, including how the media frames micromobility. Media framings are representations, a key component of mobility, alongside physical movement and practice, all involving power relations. Drawing on mobility studies and discourse analysis, this paper compares how the Dutch and British national press frame micromobility. We identify five frames of micromobility: (1) as sustainable and active shift, predominant in the British press; (2) as disruption of the Dutch pedal-powered cycling regime; (3) as catalyst of conflicts in public space, both in the Dutch and British press; (4) around the shortcomings of micromobility regulations in both contexts; and (5) concerning lifestyle in the Dutch context. We demonstrate how media framings of micromobility only limitedly discuss its potential to transition from automobility, focusing instead on social status changes, regulatory challenges, and conflicts between different forms of micromobility, that are already marginalized. Our findings emphasize the urgency to put the transition from automobility—the elephant in the room—on the agenda.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51457,"journal":{"name":"Mobilities","volume":"19 6","pages":"Pages 1054-1075"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Mobilities","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S1745010124000328","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"GEOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The media’s agenda-setting function in terms of selecting and presenting issues to the public and policymakers is crucial for the urgently needed transition towards more sustainable mobilities, including how the media frames micromobility. Media framings are representations, a key component of mobility, alongside physical movement and practice, all involving power relations. Drawing on mobility studies and discourse analysis, this paper compares how the Dutch and British national press frame micromobility. We identify five frames of micromobility: (1) as sustainable and active shift, predominant in the British press; (2) as disruption of the Dutch pedal-powered cycling regime; (3) as catalyst of conflicts in public space, both in the Dutch and British press; (4) around the shortcomings of micromobility regulations in both contexts; and (5) concerning lifestyle in the Dutch context. We demonstrate how media framings of micromobility only limitedly discuss its potential to transition from automobility, focusing instead on social status changes, regulatory challenges, and conflicts between different forms of micromobility, that are already marginalized. Our findings emphasize the urgency to put the transition from automobility—the elephant in the room—on the agenda.
期刊介绍:
Mobilities examines both the large-scale movements of people, objects, capital, and information across the world, as well as more local processes of daily transportation, movement through public and private spaces, and the travel of material things in everyday life. Recent developments in transportation and communications infrastructures, along with new social and cultural practices of mobility, present new challenges for the coordination and governance of mobilities and for the protection of mobility rights and access. This has elicited many new research methods and theories relevant for understanding the connections between diverse mobilities and immobilities.