Australian railway historiography, like its railway history and indeed like Australia itself, poses a curious paradox. Why is such a fortunate and civil polity so parochial and so divided geographically? It is now more than 230 years since British colonisation began. Ever since, Australia has been prosperous; relatively egalitarian, at least for its white population; generally free from civil strife; and efficiently and effectively governed. The temperature of its debates and conflicts rarely has risen above levels characterised by civil disobedience and strikes, which have been controlled by police and courts within usual legal frameworks.
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In Mobility in History
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jan 2013
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 149–158 (10 total)
Culture Constraints of High-Speed Rail in the United States
A Perspective from American Exceptionalism
Zhenhua Chen
The development of high-speed rail (HSR) infrastructure in the United States faces a great challenge given concerns of economic viability and political complexity. However, an in-depth investigation reveals that some of these challenges and complexities regarding high-speed rail mobility can be elucidated by historical and cultural characteristics that affect daily behavior, lifestyle, and public attitudes in U.S. society. This essay discusses the debate on the U.S. high-speed rail development policy from the perspective of American exceptionalism. Through an exploration of the four traits of American exceptionalism, the essay argues that the stagnation of U.S. federal high-speed rail initiatives can be explained by U.S. cultural constraints: individualism, antistatism, populism, and egalitarianism. Unless more solid evidence is provided to convince the public about the benefits of HSR mobility, the HSR debate is likely to continue in the United States.
Racing Mobility, Excavating Modernity
A Comment
Cotten Seiler
literary studies, sociology, and the history of technology, these essays illustrate the versatility of the mobility optic as well as its massive potential for the formation of new knowledge and the effecting of egalitarian policy. The scholars here make the
Discipline and Publish?
Transfers as Interdisciplinary Site
Cotten Seiler
, sustained, and throttled in different historical moments. American studies’ objects of inquiry, methods, and ethos mark it as oriented toward national and global transformation in an egalitarian, democratic direction, an orientation it shares with most
Regional and sub-regional effects on development policies
The Benelux and the Nordic countries compared
Lauri Siitonen
international solidarity and bridge-builder versus the North–South divide; and third, as egalitarian societies versus capitalist neo-liberalism and state socialism. Ingebritsen (2002, p. 13) has shown that the Nordic countries have acted as “norm entrepreneurs
In Regions and Cohesion
- Published (Print):
- 01 Jun 2017
- Article Type:
- Research Article
- Pages:
- 34–69 (36 total)
Michael K. Bess, David Lipset, Kudzai Matereke, Stève Bernardin, Katharine Bartsch, Harry Oosterhuis, Samuel Müller, Frank Schipper, Benjamin D’Harlingue, and Katherine Roeder
ethnic groups. Cycling is not egalitarian by definition: gentrification, which engenders rising costs of living in urban centers, pushes the unprivileged to the outskirts, where cycling facilities are often far from optimal. For them, commuting distances
Eirini Kasioumi, Anna Plyushteva, Talya Zemach-Bersin, Kathleen F. Oswald, Molly Sauter, Alexandra Ganser, Mustafa Ahmed Khan, Natasha Raheja, Harry Oosterhuis, and Benjamin Fraser
. Hoffmann’s plea for more equitable cycling policies offers a valid corrective, not only to the assumption that the two-wheeler is by definition an egalitarian vehicle but also to the celebration of the recent “bicycle renaissance” in many Western cities
“Two Wheels Bad”?
The Status of Cycling in the Youth Hostels Association of England and Wales in the 1930s
Michael Cunningham
(now emboldened) and the hearty, the young and the old.” 16 If this inclusiveness and egalitarianism were to be respected, it would preclude a pejorative view of cycling or cyclists. The second aspect of YHA ethos relevant here is the concept of
Target Practice
The Algorithmics and Biopolitics of Race in Emerging Smart Border Practices and Technologies
Tamara Vukov
technologies are presented as affording cleaner, more mediated and rational practices of bordering, and enforcement at a distance. 8 Biometric technologies have been promoted as ushering in a new postracial era of more egalitarian, objective border policing. 9