Suchergebnisse

Based on a comparison of two public elementary schools located on the east and west sides of Vancouver, British Columbia, the paper explores the effects of spatial and social contexts on parents' school traffic safety practices. By taking into account the dynamics of gender and social class in different geographies of mobility at the two schools, we illustrate how parents' (especially mothers') daily concerns, practices and volunteerism reflect unequal risks and responsibilities in safeguarding children from motorized traffic. We also suggest that despite geographical differences and social inequalities, auto-centred environments and traffic safety governance create remarkably similar parental mobility concerns at the two schools, reflecting the stratifying effects of automobility. Our analysis of the troubling effects of the automobility system underscores the importance of acknowledging how parental traffic safety practices contribute to the illusion of traffic safety and to the necessity of challenging auto hegemony.

La sécurité routière constitue une question d'intérêt public très discutée, et ses pratiques fortement débattues exigent une analyse sociologique et l'attention systématique des politiques publiques. Dans cette étude, les auteurs analysent les programmes de sécurité routière dans les écoles primaires de Vancouver, en Colombie‐Britannique. Ils illustrent comment de tels programmes supposent une politique de la responsabilité visant grandement les enfants et les parents pour en faire des personnes sécuritaires sur la route dans un environnement institutionnel qui ne fournit pourtant aux programmes qu'un soutien et des fonds sporadiques pour administrer les risques de la circulation. Alors que ce contexte de programmes de sécurité routière à l'école aide à maintenir une certaine « illusion de sécurité», elle ne remet pas fondamentalement en question la structure dominante actuelle de la mobilité et les problèmes qui y sont inhérents.Traffic safety is a contested public issue and highly negotiated practice that requires sociological analysis and systematic public policy attention. In our case study, we examine elementary school traffic safety programs in Vancouver, British Columbia. We illustrate how such programs assume a politics of responsibility that largely targets children and parents for traffic safekeeping within an institutional environment that gives programs only sporadic support and funding to manage traffic risks. While this context of school traffic safety programs helps to maintain an "illusion of safety," it does not challenge the current auto‐dominant mobility structure and its inherent problems.

As president of the American Sociological Association in 2004, Michael Burawoy initiated a lively discussion about the sociological terrain in the United States and appealed to his colleagues to engage in more 'public sociology' (Burawoy, 2004, 2005a). We applaud Burawoy's efforts to begin the task of contextualizing US sociology and of renewing the challenge to embrace rather than eschew engagement with various publics. In outlining his version of public sociology, Burawoy has provided complex, thought-provoking if ambiguous conceptualizations that have led to vigorous debate and examination of core terms. In this paper, we aim to contribute to the debate by discussing feminist sociology, particularly in Canada.