Title: Coaching and Training: an Ethnography of Student Commuting on Sydney's Suburban Trains
Abstract: Abstract Public transport systems in Australia receive subsidies from state governments to facilitate the movement of students to and from schools. During the educational peak hours, students on their way to and from school dominate the demographics of buses and trains. Policies of de‐zoning plus the drift to non‐government schooling have increased the numbers of students commuting each day. As with commuting in general, student commuting is taken for granted and its associated 'travel performances' under‐investigated. This paper analyses the 'choreographies' of students as they travel to and from school on Sydney trains. It is argued that students form closed micro‐communities for the passage of their journeys, during which they enact a range of cultural and educational activities and performances. Keywords: Student commutingtransport policymobilityrailway conductschool journeys Notes 1. The Taunton Commission into nineteenth‐century English public schools voiced similar concerns about the amount of time children were spending on trains to reach their schools (Marsden, Citation1987, p. 124). 2. Nutritionists argue a factor in the rising levels of childhood obesity is the declining numbers of children walking and cycling to school. Very few NSW high school students do so (SPANS, Citation2004), though a scheme designed to reverse this trend, by identifying child‐friendly routes to school in Sydney's inner city, seems to be paying off. 3. Only on the one occasion did I feel that a student had noted my note taking, and that it might be in relation to them. In response, I stopped. 4. These social divisions were not peculiar to Sydney but existed in other cities, most notably London (Sennett, Citation1994, p. 333) and Second Empire Paris, which Haussmann created to segregate the population. In the United States, the electric streetcar prompted migration to the suburbs and led to suburbs being devoted to particular spheres of economic activity (See Nye, Citation1990). 5. Each mode of transport of course has its own particular habitus, and whose efficacy depends on being in the know, on being able to apply the appropriate grammar. For example, though intended for commuters, tourists now use Sydney's harbour ferries, certainly after 9 a.m. Their habitus reflects the need for tourists to occupy the best seats for exercising the 'tourist gaze'. Other passengers tend to hold back from occupying these seats. 6. CityRail now offers a service whereby efficient itineraries are available online, thus obviating the need for students to consult timetables and maps. 7. Evidence would suggest that school principals in NSW would prefer not to be posted to a 'railway' school. They are faced with too many incidents of students misbehaving on trains. The number of train‐related incidents reported in school 'Punishment Books', reinforces this view. I am grateful to Craig Campbell for this observation. 8. At present, there are three types of carriages operating on the Sydney rail network: the Comeng, the Tangara and the Millennium. They all have similar seating plans. 9. Train carriages originally followed the compartment design of stagecoaches. Because it was hard to conduct an audible conversation, there was no obligation to speak to other passengers. Trains were much quieter by comparison, which made the experience of sitting opposite someone in silence somewhat disconcerting (See Sennett, Citation1994, p. 344; Giedion, Citation1948, p. 440).
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-10-25
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 48
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