Trains in the Land of the Car: A Case Study of Mobility as Agency in the United States

Zinette Bergman
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Zinette Bergman: Department of Psychology, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 23, 1-12

Abstract: Recent studies have shown that self-efficacy—the belief that individuals are able to execute behaviors that lead to desired outcomes—is a key factor for adopting more sustainable travel modes and practices. Also crucial are societal values and policies associated with sustainability, which guide individual mobility behaviors. Thus, sustainable travel research and policies are divided into hard and soft approaches. This study applies Albert Bandura’s concept of personal agency and his model of triadic reciprocal causation (TRC) to explore mobility as agency from the perspective of 32 car users from regions, which no longer have an adequate passenger rail infrastructure. The aim is to investigate the applicability of TRC theory in a US context, as well as a substantive study of how car users make sense of their mobility practices in relation to trains. Based on hermeneutic content analysis, a mixed-method analytic framework, findings reveal that Bandura’s agentive pathways associated with individual and proxy agency define the mobility practices of interviewees. By exploring the underlying structures of salient agentive pathways, this study traces the links between agency and (un)sustainable travel within a US American mobility culture.

Keywords: sustainable travel; Albert Bandura; agency; model of triadic reciprocal causation (TRC); mixed methods; hermeneutic content analysis (HCA); multidimensional scaling (MDS); car users; trains; USA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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