'Sir, it was my right of way!' Examining cultural change and the contested entitlements of automobility. Issue 6 (2nd November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Butcher, Melissa
• Is Part Of: Mobilities. Volume 14:Issue 6(2019)
• Page Start: 795
• Page End: 808
• Publication Date: 2019-11-02
• Subjects: Automobility -- gender -- Delhi -- cultural change -- entitlement -- urban studies; Transportation -- Periodicals; 300.5
• DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2019.1635337
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1745-0101

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This qualitative study uses a frame of entitlements to explore how automobility reflects the complex tensions of cultural change, including shifting privileges within gendered and classed social relations. Through documenting the mobility of a cohort of middle-class women in Delhi, three regimes of entitlement are identified within the city's 'landscape[s] of power': the car and its impact on the built environment; the constraints of gendered expectations; and middle class entitlement within a neo-liberal city. The findings highlight the capacity of competing entitlements to structure and contest cultural change, as well as the importance of contextualising mobility theory.