Abstract
Research on children’s mobility assumes that children’s independent mobility is important for children’s development, health and well-being, while a decline in children’s independent mobility has occurred. The chapter analyses how children are addressed in regional and municipal transport policies in Uppsala, Sweden. Three rationales are identified which produce particular subjects: a hypermobile subject framed within a discourse of economic growth, a sustainable subject within a caring rationale, and a safe subject within a risk rationale. The discursive absence of children as a social group is discussed, in relation to a parallel sub-discourse of children as particularly protection-worthy. Children are cast as either political non-subjects or apolitical subjects, complicating the formulation of political demands. In conclusion, the chapter discusses the effects age-blind policy-making in transportation politics has on transport planning and urban space.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
In Sweden, research participants under 15 years of age are accessed through their guardians (SFS 2003: 460). In Trivector’s report, it is not clear whether the survey was answered by the children or their parents/an adult, although the survey was directed at children in the age range of 6–15 years. The survey was sent out to 7870 children, and the response rate was 54%. The survey by Trafikverket (2012) has been carried out every third year since 2000. The survey is addressed to parents, and in the latest study 2800 children between 6 and 15 years were targeted, with a response rate of 62.1%.
- 2.
Urry’s (2004b: 28) taxonomy of five interdependent mobilities includes: ‘the corporeal travel of people to work, leisure, family life, pleasure, migration and escape, organized in terms of contrasting time-space patterns ranging from daily commuting to once-in-a-lifetime exile; the physical movement of objects include food and water producers, consumers and retailers; as well as the sending and receiving of presents and souvenirs; the imaginative travel effected through the images of places and peoples appearing on and moving across multiple print and visual media and which then construct and reconstruct visions of place, travel and consumption; virtual travel often in real time transcending geographical and social distance and forming and reforming multiple communities at a distance; communicative travel through person-to-person messages via personal messages, postcards, texts, letters, telegraph, telephone, fax and mobile’.
- 3.
This policy analysis is part of a larger ethnographic research project, in which 59 children, aged 7–13 years, and 33 parents/guardians have been participating. Findings from the ethnographic part of the project are discussed in two other articles: one concerning children’s perspectives on their mobilities (Joelsson forthcoming a), and the other addressing parents’ risk-management practices and parenting cultures (Joelsson forthcoming b).
- 4.
Commuting to Stockholm County makes up a significant proportion of the labour-force mobility (15,800 individuals commuting from Uppsala compared to 6229 commuting from Stockholm County to Uppsala). In comparison, 10,573 individuals commute to other municipalities within Uppsala County, whereas 3464 individuals from Uppsala commute to other municipalities within the county. See https://www.uppsala.se/contentassets/f09f9e6b994f41408c66064a2da8470b/statistisk-folder_sv.pdf
- 5.
However, the geopolitical situation in Europe and the rest of the world, forcing large groups of people to move (around), challenge and complicate the notion of children as rights-holders and citizens (cf. Kjørholt 2008). Kjørholt (2008: 33) argues that a difference-centred approach to citizenship ‘broadens the concept of participation, relating the practice of participation rights to belonging and community, […] [thus] recognizing children as citizens in a manner that includes their vulnerability and dependency in the concept of citizenship’.
Although the focus of my study is on well-off children with Swedish citizenship, global processes and events influence the national arena. They relate to the ongoing dialogue around protection vs. participation, and the relation to neo-liberalism (see, e.g. Kohan et al. 2015).
- 6.
The RTTC framework has been subjected to critique, notably for its assumed urban and middle-class bias. The RTTC framework in its conventional use can be seen as neglecting questions of age and generation as well, although the theoretical space for such elaborations is easily available.
References
Adams, J. (1999). The social implications of hypermobility. Paris: OECD.
Adams, J. (2005). Hypermobility: A challenge to governance. In C. Lyall & J. Tait (Eds.), New modes of governance: Developing an integrated policy approach to science, technology, risk and the environment (pp. 123–138). Aldershot: Ashgate.
Alanen, L. (2011). Critical childhood studies? Childhood, 18(2), 147–150.
Amcoff, J. (2007). Regionförstoring – idé, mätproblem och framtidsutsikter [Regional expansion – Idea, problems of measuring and future prospects]. Institutet för framtidsstudier 2007: 7, Retrieved August 7, 2017, from http://www.iffs.se/media/1195/20070620162424filGiCdC2OiL18o0lm9j11M.pdf
Andersson, R., et al. (Eds.). (2016). Mångfaldens dilemma. Boendesegregation och områdespolitik [The dilemma of diversity: Housing segregation and neighbourhood politics]. Malmö: Gleerups.
Ansell, N. (2008). Childhood and the politics of scale: Descaling children’s geographies? Progress in Human Geography, 33(2), 190–209.
Bacchi, C. (2009). Analysing policy: What’s the problem represented to be? Frenchs Forest: Pearson.
Barker, J., Kraftl, P., Horton, J., & Tucker, F. (2009). The road less travelled: New directions in children’s and young people’s mobility. Mobilities, 48(1), 1–10.
Biesta, G. (2011). Learning democracy in school and society: Education, lifelong learning and the politics of citizenship. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Björklid, P., & Gummesson, M. (2013). Children’s independent mobility in Sweden. Stockholm: The Swedish Transport Administration.
Böhm, S., Jones, C., Land, C., & Paterson, M. (Eds.). (2006). Against automobility. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
Boterman, W. R., Karsten, L., & Musterd, S. (2010). Gentrifiers settling down? Patterns and trends of residential location of middle-class families in Amsterdam. Housing Studies, 25(5), 693–714.
Boverket [National Board of Housing, Building and Planning]. (2017). Skolans nya plats i staden. Kommuners anpassning till skolvalet och urbana stadsbyggnadsprinciper [The new place of the school in the city: How municipalities adjust to the school choice and to principles for urban city building]. Report 2017:16.
Carroll, P., Witten, K., & Kaerns, R. (2011). Housing intensification in Auckland, New Zealand: Implications for children and families. Housing Studies, 26(3), 353–367.
Cedering, M. (2016). Konsekvenser av skolnedläggningar. En studie av barns och barnfamiljers vardagsliv i samband med skolnedläggningar i Ydre kommun [Consequences of school closures: A study of children’s and families’ everyday life in relation to school closures in Ydre municipality]. PhD dissertation, Uppsala University.
Cele, S. (2013). Performing the political through public space: Teenage girls’ everyday use of a city park. Space and Polity, 17(1), 74–87.
Christensen, P., & James, A. (2000). Introduction: Researching children and childhood cultures of communication. In P. Christensen & A. James (Eds.), Research with children: Perspectives and practices (pp. 1–9). Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Corsaro, W. (1992). Interpretive reproduction in children’s peer cultures. Social Psychology Quarterly, 55(2), 160–177.
de Visscher, S. (2014). Mapping children’s presence in the neighbourhood. In G. Biesta et al. (Eds.), Civic learning, democratic citizenship and the public sphere (pp. 73–89). Dordrecht: Springer Science.
Emanuel, M. (2012). Trafikslag på undantag. Cykeltrafiken i Stockholm 1930–1980 [Transport mode excepted: Bicycle traffic in Stockholm 1930–1980]. PhD dissertation, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Fainstein, S. S., & Servon, L. J. (2005). Gender and planning: A reader. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. New York: Routledge.
Forsberg, L. (2009). Involved parenthood: Everyday lives of Swedish middle-class families. PhD dissertation, Linköping University.
Foucault, M. (1990). The history of sexuality. Volume 1: An introduction. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Freudendal-Pedersen, M. (2009). Mobility in daily life: Between freedom and unfreedom. London/New York: Routledge.
Fyhri, A., et al. (2011). Children’s active travel and independent mobility in four countries: Development, social contributing trends and measures. Transport Policy, 18, 703–710.
Gil Solá, A. (2013). På väg mot jämställda arbetsresor. Vardagens mobilitet i förändring och förhandling [Towards gender equality? Women’s and men’s commuting under transformation and negotiation]. PhD dissertation, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Gustafson, K. (2011). No-go area, no-go school: Community discourses, local school market and children’s identity work. Children’s Geographies, 9(2), 185–203.
Haraway, D. (1990). Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. London: Free Association Books.
Hillman, M. (1993). One false move… An overview of the findings and issues they raise. In M. Hillman (Ed.), Children, transport and the quality of life (pp. 7–18). London: Policy Studies Institute.
Hillman, M., Adams, J., & Whitelegg, J. (1990). One false move... A study of children’s independent mobility. London: Policy Studies Institute.
Holloway, S. L., & Valentine, G. (2000). Children’s geographies: Playing, living, learning. London/New York: Routledge.
Horton, J., et al. (2014). ‘Walking… Just walking’: How children and young people’s everyday pedestrian practices matter. Social & Cultural Geography, 15(1), 94–115.
Illeris, S. (1996). The service economy: A geographical approach. Chichester: Wiley.
James, A., & James, A. L. (2004). Constructing childhood: Theory, policy and social practice. Hampshire/New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
James, A., & Prout, A. (Eds.). (1997). Constructing and reconstructing childhood. London: Falmer Press.
Joelsson, T. (2013). Space and sensibility: Young men’s risk-taking practices with motor vehicles. Dissertation No. 574, Linköping University, Linköping.
Joelsson, T. (forthcoming a). “I get a whiz in my body as I walk past it”: Children’s views of their everyday spatial mobilities. Conditionally accepted to Mobilities.
Joelsson, T. (forthcoming b). “So we don’t spoil them”: Understanding children’s everyday mobility through parents’ affective practices. Conditionally accepted to Children’s Geographies.
Jönsson, S., & Lindkvist Scholten, C. (2010). Påbjuden valfrihet? om långpendlares och arbetsgivares förhållningssätt till regionförstoringens effekter [Mandatory freedom of choice? Long-distance commuters’ and employers’ approach to the effects of regional expansion]. Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsvetenskaper.
Kjørholt, A. T. (2008). Children as new citizens: In the best interest of the child? In A. James & A. L. James (Eds.), European childhoods: Cultures, politics and childhoods in Europe (pp. 14–37). Basingstoke/New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Koglin, T. (2017). Urban mobilities and materialities: A critical reflection of “sustainable” urban development. Applied Mobilities, 2(1), 32–49.
Kohan, W. O., Olsson, L. M., & Aitken, S. (2015). “Throwntogetherness”: A travelling conversation on the politics of childhood, education and what a teacher does. Revista Electrȏnica de Educação, 9(3), 395–410.
Kyttä, M., et al. (2015). The last free-range children? Children’s mobility in Finland in the 1990s and 2010s. Journal of Transport Geography, 47, 1–12.
Laureau, A. (2003). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Law, R. (1999). Beyond “women and transport”: Towards new geographies of gender and daily mobility. Progress in Human Geography, 23(4), 567–588.
Lawy, R., & Biesta, G. (2006). Citizenship-as-practice: The educational implication of an inclusive and relational understanding of citizenship. British Journal of Educational Studies, 54(1), 34–50.
Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Levy, C. (2013). Travel choice reframed: “Deep distribution” and gender in urban transport. Environment & Urbanization, 25(1), 47–63.
Lucas, K. (2012). Transport and social exclusion: Where are we now? Transport Policy, 20, 105–113.
Lundgren, E. (2004). Våldets normaliseringsprocess. Tre parter, tre strategier [The normalization process of violence: Three parties, three strategies]. Stockholm: ROKS.
McDonald, N. (2008). Critical factors for active transportation to school among low-income and minority students. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 34(4), 341–344.
Mikkelsen, M. R., & Christensen, P. (2009). Is children’s mobility really independent? A study of children’s mobility combining ethnography and GPS/mobile phone technologies. Mobilities, 4(1), 37–58.
Mouffe, C. (2013). Agonistics: Thinking the world politically. New York: Verso Books.
Mukhtar-Landgren, D. (2008). City-marketing in a dual city: Discourses of progress and problems in post-industrial Malmö. In B. Petersson & K. Tyler (Eds.), Majority cultures and the politics of ethnic difference (pp. 55–74). Houndmills/Basingstoke/Hampshire/New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Näsman, E. (1994). Individualization and institutionalization of childhood in today’s Europe. In J. Qvortrup, M. Brady, G. Sgritta, & H. Wintersberger (Eds.), Childhood matters: Social theory, practice and politics (pp. 165–188). Aldershot: Ashgate.
Qvortrup, J. (2000). Macroanalysis of childhood. In P. Christensen & A. James (Eds.), Research with children: Perspectives and practices (pp. 66–86). Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
Rädda Barnen [Save the Children]. (2013). Barnfattigdom i Sverige [Child poverty in Sweden].
Root, A. (Ed.). (2003). Delivering sustainable transport: A social science perspective. Amsterdam: Pergamon.
Rosenbloom, S. (2005). Women’s travel issues. In Gender and planning: A reader New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press (pp. 235–255).
Sandberg, M. (2012). De är inte ute så mycket Den bostadsnära naturkontaktens betydelse och utrymme i storstadsbarns vardagsliv[They are not outdoors that much. Nature close to home – Its meaning and place in the everyday lives of urban children]. Phd diss, University of Gothenburg.
SFS 2003:460 Lag om etikprövning av forskning som avser människor [Law on ethical review concerning research on humans].
Skelton, T. (2009). Children’s geographies/geographies of children: Play, work, mobilities and migration. Geography Compass, 3(4), 1430–1448.
SOU. (2004:34). Regional utveckling – utsikter till 2020 [Regional development – Prospects until 2020].
SOU. (2008/09:93). Mål för framtidens resor och transporter [Objectives for future travel and transport].
Statistics Sweden. (2013). http://www.scb.se/sv_/Hitta-statistik/Artiklar/Antalet-barn-vantas-oka-i-Sverige/. Accessed 27 Sept 2017.
Statistics Sweden. (2016). https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/sverige-i-siffror/kommuner-i-siffror/#?region1=0380®ion2=00. Accessed 29 Sept 2017.
Statistics Sweden. (2017). http://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/statistik-efter-amne/miljo/markanvandning/tatorter-arealer-befolkning/pong/statistiknyhet/befolkning-i-tatort/. Accessed 27 Sept 2017.
Stenbacka, S. (2011). Othering the rural: About the construction of rural masculinities and the unspoken urban hegemonic ideal in Swedish media. Journal of Rural Studies, 27(3), 235–244.
Tillberg, K. (2001). Barnfamiljers dagliga fritidsresor i bilsamhället – ett tidspussel med geografiska och könsmässiga variationer [Families’ daily leisure trips in the car society – A temporal jigsaw with geographical and gendered variations]. Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Tillberg, K. (2002). Children’s (in)dependent mobility and parents’ chauffeuring in the town and the countryside. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 93(4), 443–453.
Trafikanalys. (2015). Uppföljningen av de transportpolitiska målen [Follow-up on the objectives for transport politics]. Rapport 2015:7.
Trafikverket [The Swedish Transport Administration]. (2012). Barns skolvägar [Children’s routes to school]. Report 2013:006.
Trivector. (2007). Barns och ungdomars resvanor – en resvaneundersökning bland 6–15-åringar i olika stora orter [Children’s and young people’s travel habits – A travel habit study among 6–15 year olds in different sized cities]. Rapport 2007:3.
UN. (1989). The UN convention on the rights of the child.http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/crc.pdf. Accessed 27 Sept 2017.
UN. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld/publication. Accessed 27 Sept 2017.
Uppsala Municipality Statistics. (2016). https://www.uppsala.se/contentassets/f09f9e6b994f41408c66064a2da8470b/omradesfakta-2016.pdf. Accessed 27 Sept 2017.
Uppsalatidningen. (2016, December 15). Framsteg ska sättas främst [Progress should be put first].
Urry, J. (2004a). The ‘system’ of automobility. Theory, Culture and Society, 21(4/5), 25–39.
Urry, J. (2004b). Connections. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 22, 27–37.
Valentine, G. (2004). Public space and the culture of childhood. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Westerstrand, J. (2008). Mellan mäns händer. Kvinnors rättsubjektivitet, internationell rätt och diskurser om prostitution och trafficking [Between the hands of men: Women’s legal subjectivity, international law and discourses on prostitution and trafficking]. Uppsala: Uppsala University.
Whitelegg, J. (1993). Transport for a sustainable future: The case for Europe. London: Belhaven Press.
Zeiher, H. (2003). Shaping daily life in urban environments. In P. Christensen & M. O’Brien (Eds.), Children in the city: Home, neighbourhood, community (pp. 66–81). New York: Routledge.
Zeiher, H. J., & Zeiher, H. (1994). Orte und Zeiten der Kinder. Soziales Leben im Alltag von Groβstadtkindern [Places and times for children: Everyday social life of city kids]. Weinheim und München: Juventa Verlag.
Zinnecker, J. (1990). Vom Straβenkind zum verhäuslichten Kind. Kindheitsgeschichte im Prozeβ der Zivilisation [From streetchild to the domesticated child: History of childhood in the process of civilization]. In I. Behknken (Ed.), Stadtgesellschaft und Kindheit im Prozeβ der Zivilisation. Konfigurationen städisher Lebensweise zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts (pp. 142–162). Opladen: Leske & Budrich.
Policy Material
The county plan for regional transport infrastructure 2014–2025 (Regional Federation of Uppsala County, 2014, part 1 and 2).
The regional bicycle plan for Uppsala county (Regional Federation of Uppsala County, 2010).
The action plan for the work with bicycle traffic (Uppsala Municipality, 2014a).
The action plan for public transport in Uppsala city 2015–2030 (Uppsala Municipality, 2014b).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Joelsson, T. (2019). Hypermobile, Sustainable or Safe? Imagined Childhoods in the Neo-liberal Transport System. In: Scholten, C.L., Joelsson, T. (eds) Integrating Gender into Transport Planning. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05042-9_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05042-9_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05041-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05042-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)