Commuting and Sustainability
Commuting shapes daily life and politics. Explore how public transport and electrification impact people and global supply chains.
Every day, millions of people travel to and from their main occupation. Commuting is a central part of daily life, but it is also political. Managing the public transport network is an important part of the job of local officials, for example the mayor of London. Public transport policies are likewise a key element of any progressive strategy for sustainable development, including in the UK, where electrification and nationalisation are reshaping mobility.
Everyday political economy has long discussed commuting through Marxist and feminist analyses of labour alienation, particularly in relation to caring jobs undertaken by those socialised as women. We take a different perspective, focusing instead on the global dimensions of the everyday political economy of transport electrification in public and private transport, and exploring the everyday realities of electrification supply chains.
Concepts discussed: green growth, green extractivism and mining, green transition and China’s role, electrification policies, electric vehicles, indigenous and everyday resistance.
Recommended Reading:
- Davies, M. (2016). Revisiting the Everyday in IPE with Henri Lefebvre and Postcolonialism. International Political Sociology, 10(1), pp. 22-38
- Gudynas, G. (2021). Extractivism: Politics, Economy & Ecology. Fernwood Publishing
- Haas, T. (2021). The Political Economy of Ecological Modernisation in Germany. New Political Economy, 26(4), 660–673
- Jackson, J. (2023). (Re)coordinating the German political economy: E-mobility and the Verkeswende. German Politics, 33: (4), 807-829
- Jackson, J. (2023). Decarbonisation through modernisation: The UK’s EV transition as a vehicle of industrial change, Competition and Change, 28: (2), 231-250
- Keil, A. K., & Steinberger, J. K. (2024). Cars, capitalism and ecological crises: understanding systemic barriers to a sustainability transition in the German car industry. New Political Economy, 29(1), 90–110
- Reif-Breitwieser, V. (2023) ‘The political economy of managing conflict: the state-corporate nexus and 'greening' extractivism’ SPERI Blog, 21st November
- Reif-Breitwieser, V. & Tidy, J. (2024) ‘Extraction, infrastructure, and the coloniality of violence: Why land matters’ SPERI Blog, 28th November
- Remme, D and Jackson, J., 2023. Green Mission Creep: Extractivism and the circular economy of electric vehicles, Journal of Cleaner Production, 394, 136346
Credits
- Host and Editing: Frank Maracchione (ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at SOAS University of London and part of the SPERI Presents... Working Group)
- Guest: Vicki Reif-Breitwieser (Postgraduate Researcher in Politics at University of Sheffield)
- Guest: Dr James Jackson (Hallsworth Research Fellow at University of Manchester)
- Editing: Dillon Wamsley (Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Sheffield)
- Podcast Produced By: SPERI Presents… Committee
- Music By: Andy_Gambino
