Fast Cars, Cool Rides: The Accelerating World of Youth and Their Cars

FAST CARS, COOL RIDES: THE ACCELERATING WORLD OF YOUTH AND THEIR CARS Amy Best London: New York University Press 2006, 256 pp, AUD 37.95 ISBN: 0814799310

A growing literature examines the social processes underpinning car reliance, a phenomenon that has brought a plethora of ill-health and detrimental environmental impacts. Fast Cars, Cool Rides is a new contribution to this research area, drawing attention to youth: a group (often ignored) who have an important stake and role in the organisation of mobility. Youth tend to be politically marginalised, socially and geographically restricted, but are economically important as emerging workers and consumers. They are also enthusiastic participants in the modern worship of the motor vehicle.

The rich stories that emerge from this case study, of how one group uses one commodity, will interest those who are fascinated by the intricacies of youth culture, and consumer culture; those who crave more depth in explanations of why modern society is so car dependent; or, are curious about how to explain social practice by bringing together multiple forms of data, from individual interviews through to market research and historical accounts of place.

Best provides a fascinating and in-depth ethnography of youth car cultures at San Jose, Silicon Valley in the US. This work offers insights into the protocols, purposes and performances that occur within several car-dependent youth scenes: including moving slowly while cruising, moving fast while racing, and building vehicles (and identities) at 'auto' shop class. In and out of these situations, Best explains how young people use cars to negotiate between their desires and the boundaries they experience: such as police surveillance and control, family rules and responsibilities, and managing financially. The author provides critical accounts of the less tangible boundaries which operate within youth car cultures: gender relations; notions of ethnicity, history and community; contests over place; the forces of auto marketing; industrial, population and economic change; and, mechanisms of class reproduction.

The book is easy to navigate because it is well organised into sections that each address a unique aspect of youth car culture: from the highly visible and specialised, through to the mundane. The Introduction 'sets the scene' by highlighting the rise of the automobile in the US; including the emergence of a highly profitable car market targeted directly at youth. Part one begins with the cruising scene at Santa Clara, explaining how this practice is historically symbolic of political and economic struggles for Chicano people. This is followed by an account of how girls experience this cruising scene, illustrating how senses of self-determination and 'girl power' are constructed (despite the strict and highly gendered protocols, and dangers, of the cruising scene). Moving up a gear and turning to racing, Best offers a superb depiction of how efforts around masculinity and ethnicity interweave in the different ways boys build and race their cars.

Part two gives attention to everyday consumption of the automobile in the context of family life, financial concerns and the future. The first chapter highlights the tensions between an economic and geographic context which necessitates car transport for families, notions of risk and parental control, and youths' feelings of fun and freedom, responsibility and coercion. The second chapter of this section tells of the economic context in Silicon Valley and the financial implications of these expensive car cultures for young people, some of whom spend significant amounts of money (and time at work earning this money), to own a suitable automobile.

A major theme of the book, which comes together in the conclusion, is an exploration of the role of the automobile in the identity-building projects of young people in the context of the postindustrial era. Best hypothesises that much youth car culture is motivated by the desire to be visible, to test different identities, to push boundaries and define oneself. The author reveals that this happens using firmly established meanings about femininity and masculinity, ethnic group membership, as well as class-related values about what it means to have a successful life. Best coherently explains how these concerns play out in car cultures, and reveals the problematic nature of the 'freedom' offered by the car, given the structuring influences of gender, ethnicity and socio-economics.