This article is based on an empirical case study with an interactive research approach focusing on gendered norms in a Swedish truck Company. It discusses the combined value of using the metaphor of a firewall for (1) analysing how organizational constraining gendered norms are done in everyday organizational life, and (2) as a practical tool to facilitate the processes aimed at improving norm awareness. The metaphor embodies an understanding that makes it possible to visualize relational ongoing organizational processes and power dimensions. In addition, the firewall is useful for emphasizing variations and complexity. Variations and dynamics are manifested in the ways that employees need to fulfil varying “codes” in order to be accepted. The possession of certain codes (norms) that are required to pass through the first layer of the firewall (employment), and give access to some networks, does not automatically ensure acceptance and integration into more influential networks (referred to as the informal and inner layers of the firewall). The results furthermore show that the firewall metaphor is fruitful when facilitating reflection processes amongst employees to improve norma wareness and to discuss strategies for change. The conclusion is that the firewall metaphor facilitates an analysis of the relational and complex doing of constraining norms, and that it also can be used to initiate change.

In this paper we explore how existing work place culture and gendered norms impact on the possibilities to work with so called ”norm-critical” innovation processes in an organisation. Norm-critical reflexivity in the context of innovation processes implies to pay attention to invisible and implicit norms that may result in that certain privileged perspectives is being prevailed (over others) (Balkmar & Lykke 2015). The empirical findings emanates from a two year interactive research project, in which gender researchers in collaboration with participants at Volvo Group, Sweden, have explored the ways that the company can increase its capacity to work with norm-critical perspectives in the innovation process. Volvo is a highly gender segregated organisation. At the same time the trucking industry in itself is highly masculinized in terms of different professions; ranging from truck drivers to sales personnel to technical engineers involved in the design and manufacturing of trucks. In later years the shortage of truck drivers, in combination with more women drivers entering trucking academies and haulage contractors, has led to a questioning of male norms in the transport business. This includes reports of difficult working conditions for female truckers, including how the design of the truck itself takes the male body as the implicit norm, to the assumption that it is a man that is the presumed driver of trucks.

This paper focus on the part of the project that seeks to better understand how existing work-place culture and norms structure who is considered the ideal employee (Acker 1992) and its implications for innovation. This includes studying its impacts on both the possibility for different categories of employees to take part in the innovation work on equal terms, and the ability to reflect upon the impact of implicit norms in the innovation process itself. In total, 17 semi-structured interviews were conducted with co-workers and managers (13 women and 5 men). The main questions concerned whether there existed ideals that formed implicit ”codes” (Bendl and Schmidt 2010) in the organization and its impact on ideas of preferred professional qualifications, behaviors, personal qualities and its links to career possibilities and innovation. The underlying theoretical assumption is that gender is a fundamental element of organisational structure and work life; “present in [its] processes, practices, images and ideologies, and distribution of power” (Acker 1992, p. 567). The way that gender plays out in the daily life in a workplace is understood as not being a static barrier prohibiting women in general, rather, it is considered fluid, relational and may vary depending on the context (Meyerson & Fletcher 2001, Bendl and Schmidt 2010). It is argued that the concept ”fire wall” (Bendl and Schmidt 2010 ), offers a fruitful way to highlight the elasticity and permeability that we believe characterize the forms of discrimination, inclusion and exclusion that takes place in these processes.

References

Acker, J. 1992. Gendering Organisational Theory. In Mills, A. and Tancered, P. (eds.). Gendering Organisational Analysis. London: SAGE.

Acker, J. 2006. Inequality Regimes: Gender, Class, and Race in Organisations. Gender and Society 20(4):441-464.

Balkmar, D. & Lykke, N. 2015. Developing disruptive norm-critical innovation at Volvo: FINAL REPORT. Linköping: Tema Genus Report Series No. 23: 2015.

Bendl, R. & Schmidt. 2012. From 'Glass Ceilings' to 'Firewalls' - Different Metaphors for Describing Discrimination. Gender, Work and Organization. Vol. 17. No 5:612-635.

Meyerson, D. & Fletcher J.K. 2001. A Modest Manifesto for Shattering the Glass Ceiling. Boston: Harvard Business Review.

This presentation focuses on violence(s) in traffic space as a gendered problem. It draws on qualitative online studies and interviews with cyclists about their experiences of motorists’ violent practices, including cyclists’ negotiations of anti-cyclist discourses and their coping strategies. It follows that modal conflicts is not only a problem for cities with a low prevalence of cycling; ‘bike friendly’ cities like Copenhagen and Stockholm are also troubled by fights between cyclists and drivers (Freudendal-Pedersen 2015; Koglin 2013). Such conflicts are gendered in complex ways.

Automobility appears to be a ‘violent regime’ (Joelsson 2013), a regime that produces uncaring, oppressive and violent configurations of men and masculinity (cf. Hanlon 2009). However, there are no clear-cut gendered frameworks to be applied. Such violence cannot be understood within a binary gendered framework; there is neither clearly a typical victim position nor a gendered perpetrator position. It is argued that automobility makes it possible for certain men to perform their ‘right to the road’, including gender-identity-shaping practices, and that this has the negative effect of violating cyclists’ bodily integrity. It follows that a shift from cars to more sustainable mobilities also demands related shifts in masculinities and men’s practices in the context of transport and traffic.

Frågan om vikten av att öka cykeltrafiken och göra den säkrare har rönt stor uppmärksamhet såväl medialt som inom forskningen under senare år. Många organisationer, kommuner och landsting uppmanar också sina anställda att cykla mer, något som ofta argumenteras för i positiva termer av dess bidrag till ökat välbefinnande, (folk)hälsa, teamkänsla och framkomlighet i storstäderna.

Detta projekt syftar till att med utgångspunkt i ett antal arbetsorganisationer vilka arbetar med att förmå sina medarbetare att välja cykel som transport till jobbet nå en fördjupad kunskap om de vardagsvillkor som gör att vissa väljer cykel och andra inte. Med etnografisk metodologi är målet med detta projekt att bidra med en kontextualiserad beskrivning av människors vardagsvillkor för arbetspendling med cykel.

Att färdas med cykel är förknippat med olika former av upplevelser, emotioner och (föränderliga) identiteter. Genom att beakta arbetspendling med cykel ur ett vardagsperspektiv fokuseras upplevelser av cykling relaterat till såväl cyklingens njutningar som utsatthet som oskyddad trafikant, eventuella konflikter med andra trafikslag samt hur arbetsorganisationer försöker förmå sina medarbetare att välja cykeln före mindre miljövänliga sätt att färdas.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the ways in which cycling politics, established bicycle advocates and “new” forms of net-based activism in Sweden imagine and shape future cycling. The study engages with policy analysis, cultural imaginaries, cycling citizenship, power and urban planning in order to analyse expressions of contemporary cycling politics in Sweden, with aparticular focus on the national strategy for increased and safer cycling, launched in 2017. This strategy, including how advocacy responded to the strategy, and topics raised in online blogs, reflects core differences in top-down/bottom-up views on cycling as contested practice: from more pragmatic, policy- and solution-oriented approaches to making everyday cycling experiences political. The analyses address both established and alternative ways of influencing mobility transitions and seek to address the alternative imaginings for everyday cycling that their approaches and strategies suggest. This includes analysing their role in shaping or changing cycling in the future and what these cases may tell us about the sustainability of cycling itself at both local and national levels. It is argued that, while well-established organizations already enjoy aposition of access to planners and policy-makers, it remains important to find ways of including the perspectives of emergent, on-line-based initiatives and blogs, which also formulate critical perspectives on everyday cycling.

Syftet med den här texten är att undersöka olika cyklisters föreställningar om cyklisters plats i bilsamhället och de förhandlingar de utför. När cykling marknadsförs görs det ofta i positiva ordalag med hänsyn till förbättrad hälsa och miljö. I den mediala rapporteringen om cykling i stor- och medelstora städer har det dock under senare år talats om problem såsom hot, våld och aggressivitet i ett allt intensivare och trängre trafikrum. I förlängningen är det relevant att ställa frågor om cyklisters plats i bilsamhället och vad konflikter och upplevd rädsla att cykla har för konsekvenser för den numera spridda ambitionen att öka cyklingen. 

Pia, som inte riktigt förstått varför Peter gjort den där handbromsvändningen och inte förstår varför de har så bråttom, försöker bestämma sig för hur hon ska agera. Hon känner sig rädd av den höga farten bland alla bilar och människor och önskar att Peter ville ta det lite lugnare. Hon känner hur skräcken griper tag i henne men kan inte på ett medvetet plan bli klok på om det är den höga farten som skrämmer henne eller om det är tanken på att säga till Peter att sakta farten" (Maria Gustafsson i ett kapitel om hjärnan i boken).

Pia, som inte riktigt förstått varför Peter gjort den där handbromsvändningen och inte förstår varför de har så bråttom, försöker bestämma sig för hur hon ska agera. Hon känner sig rädd av den höga farten bland alla bilar och människor och önskar att Peter ville ta det lite lugnare. Hon känner hur skräcken griper tag i henne men kan inte på ett medvetet plan bli klok på om det är den höga farten som skrämmer henne eller om det är tanken på att säga till Peter att sakta farten" (Maria Gustafsson i ett kapitel om hjärnan i boken).

Sweden is the first country in the world to have introduced the so-called Vision Zero (Nollvisionen): an ethical approach suggesting that road safety cannot be traded for mobility. Policy writings on traffic safety have so far been very limited in terms of explicitly addressing risk taking practices as mainly performed by men or as a way of performing masculinities. In this article I discuss how the gender-neutral language in traffic safety policy constructs adulthood as signifying maturity and good driving practices. In traffic safety policy, implicit adult men are contrasted against the young(er) drivers who are constructed as problematic to traffic safety. Rather than being about maturity or something that ‘just happens’ I suggest understanding (dangerous) driving as a repertoire for some men to perform masculinities linking it with power and entitlement.

Still, not only dangerous driving practices per se are problematic to road safety. I argue that automobility needs to be understood as much more thoroughly affecting everyday life than is acknowledged in traffic safety discourse. A way of acknowledging the multiplicity of experiences and effects from automobility is to view it as a ‘process of damaging’. This perspective takes into consideration how automobility simultaneously enables and disables ‘safe’ mobility along lines of gender, age and able-bodiedness. Despite the fact that these problematic effects to some extent are acknowledged in policy, automobility remains a privileged mode of transportation in contemporary Sweden.

Kvinnor och män är delvis lika, delvis olika. Det innebär att kvinnor och män både har behov av likadan behandling och av behandling som är anpassad till det egna könets förutsättningar. Denna antologi belyser kvinnors och mäns förutsättningar och behov inom en rad olika medicinska områden och tar upp både biologiska och sociala faktorer som påverkar hälsa och behandling. Den behandlar även den roll som kön spelar inom vårdens arbetsliv samt hur köns- och genusperspektiv kan integreras inom olika typer av medicin- och vårdutbildningar. Ett av bokens teman är våld, kränkningar och diskriminering, och inom ramen för detta behandlas några av de olika maktordningar som kommer till uttryck vid behandlingar inom hälso- och sjukvården. Antologin har en stor spännvidd när det gäller ämnen och författare. Förhoppningsvis ska den bredd som antologin uppvisar, leda fram till frågeställningar där läsaren utmanar sina förgivettaganden inom både genusvetenskap och mer traditionell medicin samt väcka nya frågor: Om könet snarare ses som en konstruktion än en fysisk realitet - kan då kvinnor lika gärna äta mediciner som är utprovade på män och opereras med metoder och verktyg anpassade till mäns fysiologi? Å andra sidan - hur objektiv är den naturvetenskapligt inriktade medicinska forskningen egentligen om man börjar granska den utifrån frågeställningar om perspektivval och genus? Antologin vänder sig till lärare på utbildningar inom medicin, hälsa och vård. Andra målgrupper är studenter på sådana utbildningar, vårdpersonal och en intresserad allmänhet.

Kvinnor och män är delvis lika, delvis olika. Det innebär att kvinnor och män både har behov av likadan behandling och av behandling som är anpassad till det egna könets förutsättningar. Denna antologi belyser kvinnors och mäns förutsättningar och behov inom en rad olika medicinska områden och tar upp både biologiska och sociala faktorer som påverkar hälsa och behandling. Den behandlar även den roll som kön spelar inom vårdens arbetsliv samt hur köns- och genusperspektiv kan integreras inom olika typer av medicin- och vårdutbildningar. Ett av bokens teman är våld, kränkningar och diskriminering, och inom ramen för detta behandlas några av de olika maktordningar som kommer till uttryck vid behandlingar inom hälso- och sjukvården. Antologin har en stor spännvidd när det gäller ämnen och författare. Förhoppningsvis ska den bredd som antologin uppvisar, leda fram till frågeställningar där läsaren utmanar sina förgivettaganden inom både genusvetenskap och mer traditionell medicin samt väcka nya frågor: Om könet snarare ses som en konstruktion än en fysisk realitet - kan då kvinnor lika gärna äta mediciner som är utprovade på män och opereras med metoder och verktyg anpassade till mäns fysiologi? Å andra sidan - hur objektiv är den naturvetenskapligt inriktade medicinska forskningen egentligen om man börjar granska den utifrån frågeställningar om perspektivval och genus? Antologin vänder sig till lärare på utbildningar inom medicin, hälsa och vård. Andra målgrupper är studenter på sådana utbildningar, vårdpersonal och en intresserad allmänhet.

Trots att många städer och kommuner uppmanar sina invånare att cykla, gå och åka kollektivt för hälsans och miljöns skull, är bilen fortfarande det vanligaste transportmedlet i Sverige. Trots en ökad elektrifiering av bilflottan transporterar vi oss främst med hjälp av bensin- och dieseldrivna motorer, vilka släpper ut luftföroreningar som skadar vår hälsa och som bidrar till klimatförändringar. Vägtrafiken står för den största delen av energianvändningen från transporter i Sverige, över 60% av dessa står personbilstrafiken för. Den här texten handlar om vägtrafikens negativa inverkan på miljön och människors välbefinnande. Målet är att diskutera vad våld kan vara genom att beakta de växthusgasutsläpp och klimatförändringar som följer i vägtrafikens kölvatten, närmare bestämt som en form av långsamt våld. Att betona våldets långsamhet möjliggör att lyfta fram fenomen som vanligtvis inte förstås som våld, men som över tid kan ha synnerligen våldsamma effekter på såväl miljö, djur och människor. 

As more societies around the globe will have to reduce the dominance of motorized transport for more sustainable mobilities, masculinity studies have much to contribute towards engaging more fully with mobility and transport issues, not least the many ways in which technologies of movement relates to men, masculinities and (un)sustainable transport futures. Against this background, the chapter begins with a brief note on gendered mobilities and transport more generally, then moves on to discuss the connections between men, masculinity and automobility, followed by a section that focuses on driving, emotions and risk-taking. The chapter ends with a discussion on the implications of a transport future populated with increasingly automated vehicles, including what the implications for men and masculinities may be.

This article adds new knowledge on the ways that car modifiers negotiate their cars in elation to design, power and performance as qualities that make cars attractive. Inorder to understand the complex ways in which masculinity and cars co-constitute asculine subjectivities and communities, the article uses the modifier-car as a tool to discuss how certain ways of modifying and personifying cars create links between masculinity and cars at risk in male-dominated communities. Despite the fact that modified cars may share the looks and sounds of typical racing cars – and therefore appear to encompass some of the most convincing elements of power in automobile systems, namely the capacity for risk-taking – it is rather an alleged lack of power ascribed to some versions of modified cars –the plastic rocket–that stand out as a risk to constructions of modifier masculinity. Viewed as a feminized car, the plastic rocket has come to be negotiated as an inauthentic, foreign, powerless and vulgarexample of modifying cars compared to the Swedish modified car community’s working-class self-image. At the very core of the plastic rocket is a threat to modifier masculinity which is the inability to back up one’s looks with strength. It is argued that the discourses formed around the plastic rocket indicate ‘queer’ possibilities in the ways cars extend male bodies.

Det är välkänt att unga män utgör en särskild högriskgrupp vad gäller trafikolyckor som involverar både dem själva och andra. Samtidigt brister kunskapen om hur genus, maskulinitet och motorkulturer samverkar för att stärka eller undergräva sådana former av risktagande och identitetsskapande. Den här studien syftar till att bidra till en fördjupad förståelse om hur genus, särskilt maskulinitet, är sammanvävt med bilrelaterade identiteter, praktiker och materiella konstruktioner. Med en kvalitativ forskningsansats utforskas de sätt som individer och bilar samkonstitueras i ett specifikt sammanhang, nämligen bland svenska bilbyggare/bilentusiaster. Med en etnografisk ansats studeras unga och medelålders bilentusiasters intresse för sina bilar, som de lägger ner ansenliga summor pengar, tid, kunskap och passion i att bygga om, visa och köra. Studien baseras på ett fältarbete som genomfördes mellan 2006 och 2008 på bilshower, i bilar, i internetbaserade bilgemenskaper och i garage. Totalt har 53 män och 14 kvinnor mellan åldrarna 19 och 60 deltagit i studien.

Studien visar att genus, särskilt maskulinitet, både återskapas och förhandlas när bilbyggarna använder bilen för att skapa sig själva som unika subjekt. Bilar är för bilentusiasterna inte bara ett uttryckssätt, utan är även centrala för att skapa samhörighet, samt för att reglera relationer mellan främst män genom att tävla på bilshower och bilkörning. I en alltmer kommersiell kultur framstår hantverksidentiteten av särskild vikt för görandet av maskulinitet. Studien undersöker återskapandet av hantverksskicklighet som ett ideal vilket urskiljer bilbyggarna som en ”särskild sorts” män, skapad genom sammanflätade föreställningar om svenskhet, klass och maskulinitet. De sätt som genus skapas genom bilkörning är intimt sammanlänkat med förkroppsligade och emotionella band till bilen, något som främst utforskats i relation till hur bilbyggarna förhandlar risk och fragilitet i relation till sina ombyggda bilar. Den personifierade bilen ger upphov till olika former av risktagande, vilka även skapar motdiskurser mot ett reproducerande av farlig och riskfylld bilkörning.

Det är välkänt att unga män utgör en särskild högriskgrupp vad gäller trafikolyckor som involverar både dem själva och andra. Samtidigt brister kunskapen om hur genus, maskulinitet och motorkulturer samverkar för att stärka eller undergräva sådana former av risktagande och identitetsskapande. Den här studien syftar till att bidra till en fördjupad förståelse om hur genus, särskilt maskulinitet, är sammanvävt med bilrelaterade identiteter, praktiker och materiella konstruktioner. Med en kvalitativ forskningsansats utforskas de sätt som individer och bilar samkonstitueras i ett specifikt sammanhang, nämligen bland svenska bilbyggare/bilentusiaster. Med en etnografisk ansats studeras unga och medelålders bilentusiasters intresse för sina bilar, som de lägger ner ansenliga summor pengar, tid, kunskap och passion i att bygga om, visa och köra. Studien baseras på ett fältarbete som genomfördes mellan 2006 och 2008 på bilshower, i bilar, i internetbaserade bilgemenskaper och i garage. Totalt har 53 män och 14 kvinnor mellan åldrarna 19 och 60 deltagit i studien.

Studien visar att genus, särskilt maskulinitet, både återskapas och förhandlas när bilbyggarna använder bilen för att skapa sig själva som unika subjekt. Bilar är för bilentusiasterna inte bara ett uttryckssätt, utan är även centrala för att skapa samhörighet, samt för att reglera relationer mellan främst män genom att tävla på bilshower och bilkörning. I en alltmer kommersiell kultur framstår hantverksidentiteten av särskild vikt för görandet av maskulinitet. Studien undersöker återskapandet av hantverksskicklighet som ett ideal vilket urskiljer bilbyggarna som en ”särskild sorts” män, skapad genom sammanflätade föreställningar om svenskhet, klass och maskulinitet. De sätt som genus skapas genom bilkörning är intimt sammanlänkat med förkroppsligade och emotionella band till bilen, något som främst utforskats i relation till hur bilbyggarna förhandlar risk och fragilitet i relation till sina ombyggda bilar. Den personifierade bilen ger upphov till olika former av risktagande, vilka även skapar motdiskurser mot ett reproducerande av farlig och riskfylld bilkörning.

Contemporary transport policy interventions in Swedish cities have lately come to contest the car hegemony in favor for more sustainable ways of moving about. Cycling is often argued to be one of the answers to the problem of unsustainable automobility. However, when cyclists take up more space in traffic than before, conflicts appear. In Sweden, the media reporting’s goes as far as to speak about ‘cycling hate’ in some cities, to describe the antagonism between cyclists and car drivers and between cyclists and pedestrians. This project investigates what these everyday conflicts look like, the impact of gender and what gendered implications come to mean in the much needed change towards more sustainable mobility.

Research on gender has much to benefit from engaging more in issues concerning sustainability and mobility. Both car travelling and the ideas of freedom and movement associated with the car are persistently linked to a masculine domain and masculine identity. Hence, a shift from cars to more sustainable mobility also encompasses related shifts in masculinities and men’s practices. Theoretically, the project links masculinity theory with the sociology of sensory mobilities, including theories on gendered risk-taking and gendered mobility more generally.

The study analyzes cyclists and motorist’s narratives and embodied experiences of issues related to shared traffic space. The informants are (foremost) men of different age groups and family situations who commute by bike and car, or work as professional drivers. The material is generated by using ethnographic methods in two Swedish cities, Stockholm and Linköping. The questions asked relate to issues around entitlement to space, disciplinary practices, embodiment, cooperation and conflicts in traffic. In conclusion, the project presents an analysis of intersectional power orders with respect to gender, age, place and mobility, thus focusing on what happens when protected and unprotected road users are assumed to share and negotiate public space.

When cyclists begin to take up more space in traffic than before, conflicts appear. In ‘cycling friendly’ Sweden, there have been media reports about hatred against cyclists when describing the antagonism between (male) cyclists and (male) car drivers, as well as between cyclists and pedestrians, in traffic-dense environments. Despite the current political renaissance of cycling in Sweden, the proportion of personal trips in which the bike is the main mode of transport has remained largely unchanged over the past fifteen years. This has in part been linked to cyclists’ experiences of insecurity in traffic space. Therefore, conflicts between more or less vulnerable road users are becoming increasingly important to investigate in a society where car normativity needs to be challenged in favor of more sustainable travel.

The aim of this presentation is to, based on Swedish media material, interviews and cyclists online discussion-forums, present the risk-negotiations that cyclists perform and to discuss their situation in a car-normative environment from a gender and violence perspective. What forms of risk negotiations do cyclists perform in their everyday traffic environment? How can this be understood in relation to gender and violence? The presentation argues that cyclists are being positioned in contradictory ways: both as vulnerable and exposed, as well as particularly dangerous road users in need of disciplining and interventions. The results suggest that not only do cyclists negotiate their situation by viewing themselves as drivers would, namely as more or less invisible. They are also subjected to what has been called ‘cycling hate’: discursive and even physical violence directed towards cyclists for taking up ‘too much’ traffic space from motorists. Hence, the act of swapping our everyday modes of transport for more environmentally sustainable alternatives implies a challenge to normative assumptions in a car-normative environment, including shifts in, masculinities and men’s road practices.

The aim of this presentation is to, based on ongoing research of Swedish media material and cyclists online discussion-forums, present the risk-management that cyclists perform and discuss the importance of online communities for shaping bicycle related communities, identities and activism promoting more cycling friendly cities. Apart from the different strategies used to cope with the vulnerabilities associated with being a cyclist, the analysis indicates an obvious ‘need’ to talk about what being a cyclist entails, as evident in the number of threads and blogs on everyday cycling experiences. Online ethnography makes possible to study how cyclists use new media to discuss their situation and claim their right to the road. It is argued that also in ‘cycling friendly’ Sweden, conflicts between more or less vulnerable road users are becoming increasingly important to investigate, including to analytically discuss intersecting power relations and inequalities related to gender, ethnicity, class and mobility at play in car normative spaces.

För de som är intresserade av samspelet mellan riskbenägenhet och kön/genus finns särskilt en relation som framstår som mer riskfylld än andra: män och bilar. Under senare år har mäns risktagande i trafiken uttryckligen formulerats som ett problem för en bristande trafiksäkerhet som får förödande konsekvenser för andra. Nationalföreningen för trafiksäkerhetens främjande (NTF) beskrev 2007 läget på följande vis: ”I den mån kvinnor förolyckas är det ofta män som kör ihjäl dem”. Vägverket (2003) uppskattade några år tidigare att grovt sett 90 procent av dödsolyckor med vägfordon orsakades av män. Mot denna bakgrund är det av vikt att förstå hur genus uttrycks genom bilar och hur bilar uttrycker genus. Det tycks föreligga ett flertal riskfyllda relationer att beakta som relaterar till bilkörning, bildesign och kön/genus. Här tas avstamp i mäns överrepresentation i olycksstatiken för att diskutera hur bilars design och kraft relaterar till kön, emotioner och makt.

Sweden is the first country in the world to have introduced the so-called Vision Zero (Nollvisionen). This is an ethical approach suggesting that road safety cannot be traded for mobility. Since the beginning of mass-motoring, men have been over-represented in traffic safety statistics, in terms of both ‘causing’ accidents and casualties. Against the background of the Swedish Vision Zero, it is quite extraordinary how little attention work on traffic safety has paid to men’s over-representation in Swedish fatal road accidents (90%), and (auto)mobility as a way of doing gender. The present article discusses how men and women driver subjects are produced through the Vision Zero discourse, with a particular focus on how men in traffic are constructed. This is important since such constructions and modes of address affect possible interventions and ‘solutions’ regarding road safety issues. Here I focus on three contemporary documents of policy making character or with general impact: first, the Governmental Act 2003 on road safety intervention; second, a report from the Swedish Road Administration which is applying a gender equality discourse on transport; and third a brochure issued by the Road Administration addressed to the everyday road user. These documents constitute case material that is illustrative of the Vision Zero as a generative apparatus of gender discourse. The article brings attention to the ambiguous ways in which the Vision Zero may, on the one hand, explicitly address men as problematic driver subjects, as an explicitly gendered high risk category; and, on the other, make men and masculine norms implicit through the rendering of young(er) driver subjects as problematic. This also involves pointing out women as an up and coming high risk category. To improve road safety, the discursive effects of this configuration suggest allocating responsibility partly to the ‘system’, partly to women driver subjects – in effect, to women who drive like men – rather than the men driver subjects.

Sweden is the first country in the world to have introduced the so-called Vision Zero (Nollvisionen). This is an ethical approach suggesting that road safety cannot be traded for mobility. Since the beginning of mass-motoring, men have been over-represented in traffic safety statistics, in terms of both ‘causing’ accidents and casualties. Against the background of the Swedish Vision Zero, it is quite extraordinary how little attention work on traffic safety has paid to men’s over-representation in Swedish fatal road accidents (90%), and (auto)mobility as a way of doing gender. The present article discusses how men and women driver subjects are produced through the Vision Zero discourse, with a particular focus on how men in traffic are constructed. This is important since such constructions and modes of address affect possible interventions and ‘solutions’ regarding road safety issues. Here I focus on three contemporary documents of policy making character or with general impact: first, the Governmental Act 2003 on road safety intervention; second, a report from the Swedish Road Administration which is applying a gender equality discourse on transport; and third a brochure issued by the Road Administration addressed to the everyday road user. These documents constitute case material that is illustrative of the Vision Zero as a generative apparatus of gender discourse. The article brings attention to the ambiguous ways in which the Vision Zero may, on the one hand, explicitly address men as problematic driver subjects, as an explicitly gendered high risk category; and, on the other, make men and masculine norms implicit through the rendering of young(er) driver subjects as problematic. This also involves pointing out women as an up and coming high risk category. To improve road safety, the discursive effects of this configuration suggest allocating responsibility partly to the ‘system’, partly to women driver subjects – in effect, to women who drive like men – rather than the men driver subjects.

This essay is politically and emotionally written in the vein of cycling, deeply intertwined with my own experiences of such a mundane, nevertheless risky, activity. Of late, cyclists have been regarded as disruptive and dangerous, and for at least a decade the cycling ”Lycra lout” has figured in Anglo-Saxon demonology. Simply put, ‘lycra lout’ is derogatory British slang for an arrogant, road-hogging cyclist supposedly sporty dressed up wearing lycra. In a Swedish context, we may talk of a similar figure, namely “cykelmarodören”, stylishly forcing his way through the busy streets of Stockholm city. Refusing wearing lycra, simply because it would make me look ridiculous, the joys I experience from scooting up the outer lane onto the oncoming traffic would nevertheless make me into a ‘lout’ - at least from the perspective of car drivers. Traffic, the scene of encounters through which I pedal my speedy bike affords not only excitements, it also brings relaxations. I write this text with a feeling of rest throughout my body –a welcomed reward the activity of cycling brings to wind up bodies located within academia. However, writing from the perspective of a male cyclist, this essay aims at bringing attention to risks and risk taking as a traditional aspect of performing masculine behaviour - to prove skill and potency - for example through sorting out a difficult and risky traffic situation.

This essay is politically and emotionally written in the vein of cycling, deeply intertwined with my own experiences of such a mundane, nevertheless risky, activity. Of late, cyclists have been regarded as disruptive and dangerous, and for at least a decade the cycling ”Lycra lout” has figured in Anglo-Saxon demonology. Simply put, ‘lycra lout’ is derogatory British slang for an arrogant, road-hogging cyclist supposedly sporty dressed up wearing lycra. In a Swedish context, we may talk of a similar figure, namely “cykelmarodören”, stylishly forcing his way through the busy streets of Stockholm city. Refusing wearing lycra, simply because it would make me look ridiculous, the joys I experience from scooting up the outer lane onto the oncoming traffic would nevertheless make me into a ‘lout’ - at least from the perspective of car drivers. Traffic, the scene of encounters through which I pedal my speedy bike affords not only excitements, it also brings relaxations. I write this text with a feeling of rest throughout my body –a welcomed reward the activity of cycling brings to wind up bodies located within academia. However, writing from the perspective of a male cyclist, this essay aims at bringing attention to risks and risk taking as a traditional aspect of performing masculine behaviour - to prove skill and potency - for example through sorting out a difficult and risky traffic situation.

This chapter discusses cycling promotion and modal conflicts in public space with a particular focus on men, masculinities and transport planning. It draws on three inter-related examples: interviews with cyclists about cycling; media reports on cycling; and cyclists’ online discussions on vulnerability. The first two examples illustrate how men and masculinities can be framed as both solutions and obstacles to achieving more sustainable mobilities through more cycling. The third example demonstrates how cycling implies a particularly vulnerable and conflicting position in the traffic hierarchy with implications for men and masculinities. The conflicts over urban space exemplified here illustrate how traditional transport planning has prioritized automobility and, by doing so, reproduced male norms in the transport sector. It is argued that using an intersectional analytical lens can be a fruitful way to challenge existing norms.

Varför är det viktigt att diskutera vad våld är? Ett svar är att det finns många olika sätt att förstå och analysera våld. Vissa betonar strukturella förklaringar till våld, med emfas på maktrelationer mellan män och kvinnor, andra betonar i stället individuella förklaringar, med fokus på förövarens egenskaper och karaktär. Klart är att våld tar sig många olika uttryck, exempelvis statligt våld, ekonomiskt våld, terrorism, interpersonellt våld, gängvåld, hatbrott, nätbaserat våld, och stalkning. Våld kan utövas mellan stater, mellan grupper, och mellan människor och på en mängd olika arenor. Kort sagt, vad som förstås som våld beror på vilket perspektiv som tillämpas och kan förändras över tid och rum. För att kunna motverka våld behöver vi därför diskutera och ibland utmana etablerade definitioner och förståelser av våld. I det här numret av tidskriften texter om våld har vi bjudit in forskare inom CVS att bidra till dessa diskussioner.

Kvinnor är fortfarande i minoritet bland disputerade och inom det tekniska området finns särskilt få disputerade yrkesverksamma kvinnor. Kvantitativ översyn ur ett jämställdhetsperspektiv av regioner, samhällsområden och branscher där disputerade kvinnor förvärvsarbetar och jämför med de regioner, samhällsområden och branscher som VINNOVA tilldelar forskningsmedel.

Kvinnor är fortfarande i minoritet bland disputerade och inom det tekniska området finns särskilt få disputerade yrkesverksamma kvinnor. Kvantitativ översyn ur ett jämställdhetsperspektiv av regioner, samhällsområden och branscher där disputerade kvinnor förvärvsarbetar och jämför med de regioner, samhällsområden och branscher som VINNOVA tilldelar forskningsmedel.

This presentation focuses on violence(s) in traffic space as a gendered problem. It draws on qualitative online studies and interviews with cyclists about their experiences of motorists’ violent practices, including cyclists’ negotiations of anti-cyclist discourses and their coping strategies. It is argued that automobility makes it possible for certain men to perform their ‘right to the road’, including gender-identity-shaping practices, and that this has the negative effect of violating cyclists’ bodily integrity. It follows that a shift from cars to more sustainable mobilities also demands related shifts in masculinities and men’s practices in the context of transport and traffic.

This article focuses on violence(s) in traffic space as a gendered problem. It draws upon qualitative online studies and interviews with cyclists about their experiences of motorists’ violent practices, including cyclists’ negotiations of anti-cyclist discourses and their coping strategies. It is argued that automobility makes it possible for certain men to perform their ‘right to the road,’ including gender-identity-shaping practices, and that this has the negative effect of violating cyclists’ bodily integrity. It follows that a shift from cars to more sustainable mobilities also demands related shifts in masculinities and men’s practices in the context of transport and traffic.

When cyclists begin to take up more space in traffic than before, conflicts appear. The number of cyclists in Stockholm city has increased with more than 70 % in a decade (150 000 cyclists/day). In Sweden, a country where cycling is considered ‘normal’ and relatively ‘safe’, there have been media reports about “hatred” against cyclists when describing the antagonism between (male) cyclists and (male) car drivers, as well as between cyclists and pedestrians, in traffic-dense environments. A male cyclists comments to the Swedish Television about the Stockholm traffic situation: ”There is a general hatred towards cyclists. Things are thrown at me, I got spayed with windscreen washer fluid etc. It’s way too much of that” (van Luik 2013). Given the current political renaissance of cycling in Sweden, conflicts between more or less vulnerable road users are becoming increasingly important to investigate in a society where the hegemony of the car needs to be challenged in favor of more sustainable travel.

The aim of this presentation is to, based on media material, interviews and cyclists online discussion-forums, discuss cyclist’s situation in traffic-dense environments from an intersectional gender and violence perspective. Violence, with its multiple and varied forms and expressions, takes many forms. In this presentation, I address violent traffic, hence bringing discussions about violence in traffic to the analytical core. Following this, the presentation addresses not only the conditions for achieving sustainable mobility in a culture where the hegemony of the car is being challenged, but the need to problematize men and masculinities in relation to sustainable mobilities and urgent shifts in mobility patterns.

When cyclists begin to take up more traffic space than before, conflicts appear. In Sweden, the media has reported on hatred against cyclists when describing the antagonism between (male) cyclists and (male) car drivers, as well as between cyclists and pedestrians, in traffic-dense environments. Despite the current political renaissance of cycling in Sweden, the proportion of personal trips in which the bike is the main mode of transport has remained largely unchanged over the past fifteen years. This has in part been linked to cyclists’ experiences of insecurity in traffic space. Therefore, conflicts between more or less vulnerable road users are becoming increasingly important to investigate in a society where car normativity needs to be challenged in favour of more sustainable travel. The aim of this article is to, based on media material, policy reports, interviews and cyclists’ online discussion-forums, study the situation of cyclists to discuss their situation in a car-normative environment from a gender and violence perspective. What forms of conflicts do cyclists negotiate in their everyday traffic environment? How can this be understood in relation to gender and violence? It is argued that cyclists are being positioned in contradictory ways: as vulnerable and exposed on the one hand, and as particularly dangerous road users in need of disciplining and interventions on the other. Not only do cyclists negotiate their situation by viewing themselves as drivers would, namely as more or less invisible. They are also subjected to what has been called ‘hatred’: discursive and even physical violence directed towards cyclists for taking up too much traffic space from motorists. Examples of (violent) resistance against and negotiation with the self-evident nature of (male) motorists’ entitlement to traffic space are given. In the final part of the paper I suggest that the violence needs to be understood as deeply embedded within larger gendered structural formations of mass motorism and traffic space.

Att fler ska välja cykeln som huvudsakligt vardagstransportmedel är en stor transportpolitisk utmaning. I den mediala rapporteringen om trafiken i storstäderna har det dock under senare år talats om hot, våld och aggressivitet mellan bilister och cyklister. Samtidigt som undersökningar visar att upplevd osäkerhet minskar andelen cyklister så har transportforskningen sällan intresserat sig för hot och våld i trafiken. Fokus har i transportsammanhang snarare riktats mot säkerhet och att undvika olyckor, skador och dödsfall orsakade av kollisioner mellan människor och fordon. Mot bakgrund av den numera utbredda ambitionen att öka cyklingen och minska bilismen är det relevant att ställa frågor om cyklisters situation i bilsamhället och hur kränkningar av cyklisters säkerhet kan förstås.

Med utgångspunkt i medie- och policymaterial, intervjuer med cyklister samt cyklisters diskussioner i nätbaserade cykelgemenskaper presenteras här resultat av en studie om cyklisters riskförhandlingar och upplevelser av kränkningar, hot och våld i trafiken ur ett könsperspektiv. Våld i trafiken diskuterats dels i termer av latenta hot mot cyklisters säkerhet (upplevd osynlighet i trafiken, tutningar och hat riktat mot cyklister), dels som kränkningar riktade specifikt mot cyklister som trafikantkategori (täta omkörningar, riskfyllda maktdemonstrationer och prejningar). Trots skillnader inom cyklistkategorin – vilken kan diversifieras utifrån många fler intersektioner än kön – så framstår dock våld i trafiken som en viktig fråga i det fortsatta arbetet för jämställda och hållbara transporter.

This paper focuses gender and gender equality in contemporary and future haulage business, arguing for a need for norm-critical approaches to build more gender equal transport futures. Currently, there is a general demand for more drivers internationally and in Sweden. Following the current driver shortage in occupational road freight, transport companies in Europe and Sweden recognise the need to recruit more women chauffeurs. Part of the problem is how transport is gendered, strongly intertwined with masculine norms that prevents nonnormative bodies to identify themselves as drivers. In Sweden, a country with a world reputation as champions in gender equality, men still make up more than 90 % of the work force in the Swedish transport business. While recruiting more women would contribute to solve the urgent problem of driver shortage, women drivers typically face gendered problems, concerning their personal safety, harassments, hygiene, and work/life (im)balance. From the perspective of the haulage business, addressing these gendered problems can increase the ability hire more women drivers, but would also need to develop transport innovations that suit not only today’s male users but also those of tomorrow.

Future road freight and transport innovations such as more autonomous vehicles are often imagined to ‘solve’ some of the current problems that transport companies struggle with, including driver shortage. With the advent of autonomous, electrified and connected mobilities, we may anticipate both a gendered re-segregation and that fewer drivers would be needed (Balkmar and Mellström 2018). Nevertheless, problems of road transportation and the lack of gender equality in the haulage business can’t be solved following the “old logics of a technological fix”, gendered social and cultural issues need to be part of the solution (Kröger and Weber, 2018). Against this background, the aim of this paper is to explore how normcritical perspectives can offer ways forward with regards to gender and (lack of) gender equality in the haulage business. This includes to consider how technological innovations may change what it entails to be a truck driver and open new opportunities for the profession with regards to gender equality.