Edward Elgar publishing (Link opens in a new window)

Sustainable Automobility

Understanding the Car as a Natural System

What This Book is About

Sustainable Automobility - Front CoverWe have been trying to make cars cleaner and more efficient for some time, but has this really made them more sustainable? This book argues, within the context of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP), that we should see the car as a natural system, subject to natural laws and processes. As part of this new perspective we need to change our attitude to cars, building more durable relationships and co-evolve with them. Revolutionary, perhaps; but if we get it right, this approach will allow us to enjoy motoring – albeit in modified form – into the future. The book draws on a range of disciplines, including Industrial Ecology, engineering, philosophy, anthropology, consumer psychology and ecology, as well as providing industry examples to support its innovative case. This centres on the idea that if we are part of nature, then so is everything we make. This book explores this notion using the example of the car, how it is made and used and especially how we relate to it, with a view to creating a more sustainable automobility.

The subject area covers four broad fields: the automotive industry, SCP, ecological models of business, and the new philosophical field of object-oriented ontology (OOO). The book is unique in bringing all of these together for the first time. Thus far most books about sustainable consumption of automobility have erred on the incremental, eco-efficiency side of things. This provides limited potential for true sustainability, as much of it has also been too technology focused. Conversely, the ecological models and the object-oriented ontology model have remained quite theoretical. Bringing all this together has not been done before. In any case, the OOO field is very new, so we are still early on in this area. It is also the first concrete effort to apply ecological thinking to a specific product or sector.

Ordering Sustainable Automobility

Are We Natural (a .pdf based on a short PowerPoint presentation).

Site developed by Small Business Websites