Att köra eller inte köra : Hur de äldre, åldrande och bilkörning har diskuterats i svensk transportpolitik

• Main Author: Heikkinen, Satu
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Sociologiska institutionen 2008
• Subjects: ageing; old age; image; representation; gerontology; mobility; transportation; sociology; older drivers; driving licence; traffic safety; policy; discourse analysis; Foucault; archaelogy; categorisation; Sociology; Sociologi
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-8743; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:isbn:978-91-506-2006-1

The objective of this study is to analyse the formation of older and ageing drivers in Swedish transportation policy. Documents from the Swedish Government, the Riksdag and, in a few cases, public authorities and newspapers are analysed. The discourse-analytical framework is inspired by Foucault’s archaeology, which is used as a tool box. The study identifies/constructs three periods in the formation of older and ageing drivers. In the first period (1934–1967) there is a discursive gap between statements about driver selection and traffic safety. Driving in ‘old age’ is a problem for medical expertise and mandatory tests are proposed. The proposals are rejected, as older people’s driving is not a problem in the discourse of traffic safety. In the second period (1967–1991) ‘older drivers’ is made up as a category of interest. ‘Older drivers’ become an accident population in the discourse of traffic safety due to changes in statistical practices. In the third period (1991–2006) a discourse of older peo-ple’s mobility is appearing alongside the discourses of traffic safety and driver selection. Moreover, the study traces how the statements of older and ageing drivers are ordered by more general ideas of the aged and ageing. Double discourses of ageing are followed by a dichotomisation in ‘healthy’ and ‘sick older drivers’ in the 1990s. The idea of an abrupt exit in old age alters to a more gradual exit, in its turn followed by challenging the very idea of exit.