Driving things: Knowing objects' place in the car

I explore how participants organise involvement with objects brought into the car, relative to the demands of driving and social activity. Objects in cars commonly include phones or other technologies, food, body care products, texts, clothing, bags and carry items, toys, and even animals. Interaction with objects reflects the car’s role beyond mere transport as a site of personal, social, and work life (Featherstone et al. 2005; Redshaw 2008). Studies of interaction examine this role as it is actually enacted, understood, and accomplished, in situ through participants’ practices (e.g. Laurier 2004, Haddington et al. 2012). I focus here especially on how the practical and interactional work of locating, seeing, placing, handling, hearing, and relinquishing, is ordered and accomplished relative to the emerging and contingent demands of both driving and social participation, such that involvement with objects is constituted as secondary to driving in a multiactivity setting (e.g. Haddington et al. 2014). We see how events with, for, of, and even by objects can occur as predictable, planned and even designed for (e.g. changing glasses, applying body lotion), or might be unexpected and unplanned, occurring relative to the dynamics of driving situations and actions, and of social participation (e.g. serenading a partner, a falling dog). Either way, participants know objects’ place, both in terms of their status and legitimacy for attention and activities underway, and more literally of their physical location. The paper furthers recent interest in objects in and for social interaction and activity (see Nevile et al. 2014), and especially their place within an ecology including the body, talk, and the material surround. The paper draws and expands on data and analyses of a study on the nature of in-car distractions, and how they impact driving activities (Nevile & Haddington 2010). Data are video recordings of ordinary journeys, capturing drivers and passengers in real-world real-time driving situations (27 hours, 90 journeys). For driving and road safety, research and experience has established that distractions can be a frequent and significant part of the ordinary driving environment and experience, and distraction is often a contributing factor in crashes. Objects are recognised as a common form of driver distraction. References Featherstone, M., Nigel, T. & Urry, J. (Eds.) (2005) Automobilities. London: Sage. Haddington, P., Keisanen, T. & Nevile, M. (Eds.) (2012) Meaning in motion: Interaction in cars. Special Issue for Semiotica, 191, 1/4. Haddington, P., Keisanen, T., Mondada, L., & Nevile, M. (Eds.) (2014) Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Laurier, E. (2004) Doing office work on the motorway. Theory, Culture and Society, 21 (4/5): 261– 277. Nevile, M. & P. Haddington (2010) In-car distractions and their impact on driving activities. Canberra: Department of Transport and Infrastructure, Australian Commonwealth Government. pp.155 ((http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/roads/safety/publications/2010/pdf/rsgr_2010001.pdf)) Nevile, M., Haddington, P., Heinemann, T., Rauniomaa, M. (Eds.) Interacting with objects: Language, materiality, and social activity. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Redshaw, S. (2008). In the company of cars: Driving as a social and cultural practice. Aldershot: Ashgate.