Petroculture, safety and security – frame contestations in the environmental protest against Scan-Link 1984–1988

To plan for a sustainable transportation network, we need to understand the values connected to existing structures. In the history of car dependency and petroculture, the promise of speed is everywhere. Through a frame analysis focusing on contestation, this paper examines values connected to fossil fuel infrastructure. Specifically, the paper interrogates the plans to construct a highway on the west coast of Sweden in the late 1980s, a plan which was met with environmental protests and contestation. I argue that, apart from speed, the protests came to actualize questions of safety and security for persons, the community, and nature. Drawing from this analysis, the paper demonstrates how cultures of fossil fuel dependency are not only constructed in relation to speed and freedom, but also that values of safety and security are key to understanding the pervasiveness of petroculture and consequently to understanding how to better plan for a sustainable future.