Gender studies

4D: Doing Driving, Doing Design. Gender, Age and Transport Practices

The project is funded by Vinnova, Linköping University and Luleå University of Technology.

Vinnova

Luleå University of Technology

Research group

• Jeff Hearn Professor of Gender Studies (Critical Studies on Men), Linköping University
• Ulf Mellström Professor of Gender and Technology, Luleå University of Technology
• Dag Balkmar doctoral researcher, Gender Studies, Linköping University
• Tanja Joelsson doctoral researcher, Gender Studies, Linköping University
• Jan Lundberg Professor of Industrial Design, LTU
• Linn Sandberg doctoral researcher, Gender Studies, Linköping University
• Jennie Olofson doctoral researcher, Industrial Design, LTU
• Phillip Tretten doctoral researcher, Industrial Design, LTU

Description and aims of the project

The doing of traffic, movement, driving and transport is often taken for granted, especially in terms of gender. The project seeks to bring together and develop
interdisciplinary knowledge of the social, cultural and engineering approaches to gendered and aged aspects of Swedish road and transport practices.

The project focuses on academic and policy knowledge, as well as technological and social science knowledge, thus taking gender and intersectionality, spatial and cultural analyses into account. Multiple methods are used:

• analyses of road safety statistics to portray traffic accidents and violent road practices as gendered and ‘aged’, including social dimensions of ethnicity and class
• ethnographic case studies to understand and critically analyse driving practices
• experiment
• discourses and symbolization
• qualitative interviews with different groups of men and women
• studies of advertising, magazines and policy material
• policy study analysis of road safety policy material, interviews with key policy persons

The project is divided into three sub-projects.

Sub-project A: “Doing gender and masculinity through driving: Men’s violent road practices and constructions of masculinities”
In this sub-project doctoral researcher Dag Balkmar (Linköping University), investigates, evaluates and understands how gender is done in traffic, with particular focus on men, masculinities, danger and violence. For further information, please visit Balkmar’s personal page.

Dag Balkmar

Sub-project B: “Doing age and masculinity through driving: Men’s unsafe road practices and constructions of masculinities”
Doctoral researcher Tanja Joelsson’s (Linköping University) sub-project aims at investigating, evaluating and understanding how age is done in traffic, with particular focus on safety and the intersections of age and gender. For more information, please visit Joelsson’s university homepage.

Tanja Joelsson

Sub-Project C (LTU): “Doing masculinity through driving, speed, and risk”
This sub-project aims to gather data for optimisation of design of driver’s cabin, and analyse contemporary and historical contexts of driving, speed, risk, masculinity and safety.

The universities in Linköping and Luleå work on integrating the knowledge from the diverse sub-projects through focusing on the academic, disciplinary, practical and policy linkages between each project.