Siberian Automobility Boom: From the Joy of Destination to the Joy of Driving There

Hanoi on wheels: emerging automobility in the land of the motorbike

“…While motorbike ownership quickly became fairly uncontroversial, owning a car is more conspicuous, and has not always had positive connotations in Vietnam. As Broz and Habeck (2015) note concerning the dual role of cars in the soviet Union, cars can be seen as suspicious items related to individualism and consumerism rather than socialist progress (see also siegelbaum 2008). Indeed, the changing social position of cars can in many ways be seen as a symbol of Vietnam's transition to capitalism.…”

Driving in terrain

“…From the point of view of a Kremlin‐aligned “political technologist” (or think tank operative who organizes political campaigns), both the conservative and progressive tendencies may be preferable to the deeply rooted anti‐elitist, unruly communitarian ethos. As a result, imaginaries that are outside the state may be filled with possibilities of freedom and alternative ways of sociality (Broz and Habeck ), but they remain for the most part unrealizable dreams. Both Roman and Batyr reach instead for the freedom of driving, often fueled by alcohol and the stress of precarious life, which make one ever and always “spin around”—and speed up.…”

Post‐socialist (auto)mobilities: Modernity, freedom and citizenship

“…As she highlights through her research in Serbia, the conditions in public transport are thus perceived as conditions of the state: e.g., the lack of clear prices evokes perceptions of “chaos.” Sgibnev (), similarly, argues using Jensen () notion that public transport functions as “politicised armature” that keeps the perception of the Soviet style welfare state with functioning public services alive even if such state‐provided services remain a mere fiction. Departing from the state‐centrism of public transit, automobiles signified independence from the state (Broz & Habeck, ; Popov, ). Private cars offered “personal freedom in seeming non‐dependence on the state” compared to public transit's “imposed from above” character (Broz & Habeck, , p. 10).…”

“…Departing from the state‐centrism of public transit, automobiles signified independence from the state (Broz & Habeck, ; Popov, ). Private cars offered “personal freedom in seeming non‐dependence on the state” compared to public transit's “imposed from above” character (Broz & Habeck, , p. 10). Yet, not only are there various forms of emerging publics through cycling or running (Barnfield, ; Barnfield & Plyushteva, ) but equating private automobiles with freedom from the state is itself a simplification (Beckmann, ).…”

“…If we consider the societal shifts, rapid changes in prominent mobility modes or changing patterns of travel because of border modifications, post‐socialism seems to be all about mobility. There is indeed some research in this direction linking mobility and (post)socialism (particularly Burrell & Hörschelmann, , but also Barnfield & Plyushteva, ; Broz & Habeck, ; Popov, ; Stenning, ) but there is still much space for a more conceptual (Ferenčuhová, ) and comprehensive take on the constellations of different mobilities vis‐à‐vis shifting power relations between state and citizens as they are related to post‐socialism. Thus, such intersecting of the two notions ventures into the less considered parts of the world to avoid the biases towards “West.” Various voices building on the experience of mobilities in the “East” have already raised such questions in terms of mobility (Lin, ; Steele & Lin, ): West should not be seen as the “model for a universal knowledge” (Lin, , p. 53).…”