Mobilities,mobile work and habitation: truck drivers and the crisis in occupational auto-mobility in the UK |
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Authors: | Nicky Gregson |
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Institution: | Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK |
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Abstract: | This paper examines the relation between mobilities and mobile work through a focus on occupational auto-mobility and habitation. Drawing on qualitative research conducted on truck drivers/driving in South-east England, it shows habitation emerges when driving stops; that it is cab-based dwelling-in-transit and nomadic dwelling rooted in and bounded by the material culture of the cab; and that it is displaced to the margins and interstices of the road and logistical network. The paper highlights the discomfort of cab-based habitation and its limits, in sanitation, and examines how recent developments at distribution centres intensify discomfort by denying cab-based habitation. These developments recast the relation of occupational auto-mobility and habitation through transient dwelling and are key to understanding the current crisis in labour supply in truck driving. |
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Keywords: | Cargo mobilities logistics distribution dwelling truck driving sanitation |
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