Our relationship with cars is based on a deep social and psychological dependence on them. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, car companies have been working to successfully transform the world to suit their product. Subsequent decades have thus produced infrastructural, architectural, urban, cultural and economic habits. The car also reigns effectively in language and influences the view of reality. We are also continually bringing up new generations to adapt to it. Cars enter the cradles of newborns, their symbol imprinted on their sleepwear and toys. They appear on furniture, blankets, prams, in films and books. Right up to the moment of initiation, when every mature teenager or youngster "should" make a driving licence to then get into their own car.
 

Marta Żakowska

Marta Żakowska is an urban anthropologist, co-founder and editor-in-chief of "Magazyn Miasta", the first interdisciplinary and popular science magazine about the city in Poland; initiator of the School of Community Architecture (1st edition, 2020), expert in the field of urban mobility culture. Assistant professor at the City Laboratory of the Museum of Warsaw. Conducts urban seminars at the School of Ideas at SWPS and at the Institute of Public Space Research at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, and has led urban independent seminars, including 'Urban Mobility Seminar: How to live in a good city. Part I: Readings for residents and councillors" during the WARSAW IN CONSTRUCTION 9 festival. She is the author of texts addressing the social contexts of architecture published in magazines and journals, among others: "Magazyn Miasta", "Architektura Murator", "Architektura & Biznes", "Polityka" and "Gazeta Wyborcza" and co-author of the podcast "Magazyn Miasta" on TOK FM Radio. She is the originator and author of the guidebook and educational programme Age-Friendly Cities carried out in cooperation with the WHO Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities and Communities. Representative of Poland in the European activist group City Makers, participating in the process of creating a new European Urban Agenda.