Taking this position as a point of departure, the following text uses commuting as an empirical prism through which to problematize daily routines and their rhythms while simultaneously challenging the perception of them as being static, uniform and empty of meaning. In order to do this, the chapter begins by outlining some of the ways in which the routines of commuting are important to people. It then proceeds by interrogating the issue of structure and the manner in which people creatively and ritualistically use routines at times to provide order to their lives, while at other times they find themselves longing to break out of existing patterns of behaviour. As part of this discussion, the text argues that routines do not just unfold in a simple predetermined and mechanical fashion; they have tempos and rhythms of their own that make them susceptible to change, but that even help people adapt to the ever-changing context of everyday life. As a means of exemplifying this, the chapter closes by examining the particularities of the commute as a public endeavour in which people continuously use routines as vehicles of boundary control – ever moving back and forth between states of public and private; work and leisure; and home and away.
In order to address these issues, the work in hand draws upon a several different forms of methods and materials. In part, it is anchored in a combination of short interviews conducted with commuters, and materials gathered from local Swedish newspapers about commuting.<sup>1</sup> But more importantly, larger portions of the following text are the products of phenomenologically orientated empirical observations I have made over the past seven years on my own commute between Lund and Helsingborg. These observations constitute a form of auto-ethnography in which I have allowed my own experiences as a commuter to work as a point of departure for portions of the analysis. The choice to introduce auto-ethnographic materials was motivated by my desire to move the analysis from beyond the bounds of what people say they are doing, and into the realm of the actual rhythms, tempos and practices of commuting.<sup>2</sup>
The Drama of the Undramatic
It’s actually gotten to the point that passengers have gotten into fist fights on the bus . . . Things are difficult.
Bus driver in Åtvidaberg<sup>3</sup>
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Tom O’Dell