Lewis H. Siegelbaum (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449918
- eISBN:
- 9780801463211
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449918.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
Across the Soviet Bloc, from the 1960s until the collapse of communism, the automobile exemplified the tension between the ideological imperatives of political authorities and the aspirations of ...
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Across the Soviet Bloc, from the 1960s until the collapse of communism, the automobile exemplified the tension between the ideological imperatives of political authorities and the aspirations of ordinary citizens. For the latter, the automobile was the ticket to personal freedom and a piece of the imagined consumer paradise of the West. For the authorities, the personal car was a private, mobile space that challenged the most basic assumptions of the collectivity. The “Socialist Car”—and the car culture that built up around it—was the result of an always unstable compromise between official ideology, available resources, and the desires of an increasingly restless citizenry. This book explores the interface between the motor car and the state socialist countries of Eastern Europe, including the USSR. In addition to the metal, glass, upholstery, and plastic from which the Ladas, Dacias, Trabants, and other still extant but aging models were fabricated, the Socialist Car embodied East Europeans’ longings and compromises, hopes and disappointments. The Socialist Car represented both aspirations of overcoming the technological gap between the capitalist first and socialist second worlds and dreams of enhancing personal mobility and status. Certain features of automobility—shortages and privileges, waiting lists and lack of readily available credit, the inadequacy of streets and highways—prevailed across the Soviet Bloc. This collective history puts aside both ridicule and nostalgia in the interest of trying to understand the Socialist Car in its own context.Less
Across the Soviet Bloc, from the 1960s until the collapse of communism, the automobile exemplified the tension between the ideological imperatives of political authorities and the aspirations of ordinary citizens. For the latter, the automobile was the ticket to personal freedom and a piece of the imagined consumer paradise of the West. For the authorities, the personal car was a private, mobile space that challenged the most basic assumptions of the collectivity. The “Socialist Car”—and the car culture that built up around it—was the result of an always unstable compromise between official ideology, available resources, and the desires of an increasingly restless citizenry. This book explores the interface between the motor car and the state socialist countries of Eastern Europe, including the USSR. In addition to the metal, glass, upholstery, and plastic from which the Ladas, Dacias, Trabants, and other still extant but aging models were fabricated, the Socialist Car embodied East Europeans’ longings and compromises, hopes and disappointments. The Socialist Car represented both aspirations of overcoming the technological gap between the capitalist first and socialist second worlds and dreams of enhancing personal mobility and status. Certain features of automobility—shortages and privileges, waiting lists and lack of readily available credit, the inadequacy of streets and highways—prevailed across the Soviet Bloc. This collective history puts aside both ridicule and nostalgia in the interest of trying to understand the Socialist Car in its own context.
Lindsey B. Green-Simms
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517901141
- eISBN:
- 9781452957654
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517901141.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
Postcolonial Automobility discusses how the automobile, with its promise of autonomous, unfettered mobility is a paradigmatic object through which one can assess the pleasures, dangers, and limits of ...
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Postcolonial Automobility discusses how the automobile, with its promise of autonomous, unfettered mobility is a paradigmatic object through which one can assess the pleasures, dangers, and limits of global modernity in West Africa. Though automobile ownership is among the lowest in the world and accident rates are some of the highest, automobility in West Africa remains a powerful discourse about the construction of the modern self and about the ways that global African citizens inhabit their world. Exploring an array of cultural texts –plays, novels, films and videos – the author makes palpable the complex ways that automobility in West Africa is, at once, an everyday practice, an ethos, a fantasy of autonomy and mobility, and an affective experience intimately tied to modern social life. This study is the first to address mobility explicitly within an African context and it is one of only a handful of examinations that bring together issues of physical mobility and questions of postcoloniality. Furthermore, Postcolonial Automobility is part of what might be called the infrastructural turn in postcolonial studies, a turn that moves postcolonial studies beyond the much discussed tropes of hybridity, exile, migration, and displacement and towards discussions of how postcoloniality is experienced given the material realities of uneven modernity.Less
Postcolonial Automobility discusses how the automobile, with its promise of autonomous, unfettered mobility is a paradigmatic object through which one can assess the pleasures, dangers, and limits of global modernity in West Africa. Though automobile ownership is among the lowest in the world and accident rates are some of the highest, automobility in West Africa remains a powerful discourse about the construction of the modern self and about the ways that global African citizens inhabit their world. Exploring an array of cultural texts –plays, novels, films and videos – the author makes palpable the complex ways that automobility in West Africa is, at once, an everyday practice, an ethos, a fantasy of autonomy and mobility, and an affective experience intimately tied to modern social life. This study is the first to address mobility explicitly within an African context and it is one of only a handful of examinations that bring together issues of physical mobility and questions of postcoloniality. Furthermore, Postcolonial Automobility is part of what might be called the infrastructural turn in postcolonial studies, a turn that moves postcolonial studies beyond the much discussed tropes of hybridity, exile, migration, and displacement and towards discussions of how postcoloniality is experienced given the material realities of uneven modernity.
Peter Cox
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447345152
- eISBN:
- 9781447345640
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447345152.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
This chapter seeks to engage with a selected range of current theorisations of the politics of infrastructure, and to apply them to specific cases of cycle-specific infrastructures. It subsequently ...
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This chapter seeks to engage with a selected range of current theorisations of the politics of infrastructure, and to apply them to specific cases of cycle-specific infrastructures. It subsequently relates the ideas of social and spatial justice arising from these perspectives to bell hooks’ consideration of marginalisation, to consider how the patterns of marginalisation and mainstreaming revealed in the contributions to this volume might be understood through a lens of a critical and radical politics. It is concluded that the political challenge of cycling infrastructure provision is to balance between a series of contending needs. Provision is required that provides protection from the very real fears and dangers produced by the dominance of automobility. Simultaneously, this needs to be both inclusive and to send a message that all users are valuable. Yet both of these also need to recognise and communicate that the ultimate goal of cycle infrastructure provision should not be to provide a safe and comfortable means to ride whilst maintaining a world dominated by automobility. Instead, in the context of the paradigm shift needed in transport thinking, cycling mobility and its infrastructures need to present a radical challenge to automobility.Less
This chapter seeks to engage with a selected range of current theorisations of the politics of infrastructure, and to apply them to specific cases of cycle-specific infrastructures. It subsequently relates the ideas of social and spatial justice arising from these perspectives to bell hooks’ consideration of marginalisation, to consider how the patterns of marginalisation and mainstreaming revealed in the contributions to this volume might be understood through a lens of a critical and radical politics. It is concluded that the political challenge of cycling infrastructure provision is to balance between a series of contending needs. Provision is required that provides protection from the very real fears and dangers produced by the dominance of automobility. Simultaneously, this needs to be both inclusive and to send a message that all users are valuable. Yet both of these also need to recognise and communicate that the ultimate goal of cycle infrastructure provision should not be to provide a safe and comfortable means to ride whilst maintaining a world dominated by automobility. Instead, in the context of the paradigm shift needed in transport thinking, cycling mobility and its infrastructures need to present a radical challenge to automobility.
Katja Leyendecker
Peter Cox and Till Koglin (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447345152
- eISBN:
- 9781447345640
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447345152.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Environmental Politics
Concerning cycling, Newcastle (UK) and Bremen (Germany) are very different cities. The former having less than 1% of trips cycled, the latter nearly 25% with hundreds of miles of cycle infrastructure ...
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Concerning cycling, Newcastle (UK) and Bremen (Germany) are very different cities. The former having less than 1% of trips cycled, the latter nearly 25% with hundreds of miles of cycle infrastructure in place. Stemming from that difference, are there lessons to be learnt? What makes a cycle city? This chapter is critically dissecting the transport policies for the two cities. Through that is the story and strength of institutional automobility slowly but relentlessly emerges – in both cities is shown. However, in Bremen democratic processes are more intact. Whilst in Newcastle change will have to overcome two obstacles: a paradigmatic step change in technical transport planning as well as an emancipation of local politics.Less
Concerning cycling, Newcastle (UK) and Bremen (Germany) are very different cities. The former having less than 1% of trips cycled, the latter nearly 25% with hundreds of miles of cycle infrastructure in place. Stemming from that difference, are there lessons to be learnt? What makes a cycle city? This chapter is critically dissecting the transport policies for the two cities. Through that is the story and strength of institutional automobility slowly but relentlessly emerges – in both cities is shown. However, in Bremen democratic processes are more intact. Whilst in Newcastle change will have to overcome two obstacles: a paradigmatic step change in technical transport planning as well as an emancipation of local politics.
György Péteri
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449918
- eISBN:
- 9780801463211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449918.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter examines how the state socialist order asserted its systemic exceptionalism (a pattern of development distinguishing socialism from capitalism) in the field of modern mobility, using ...
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This chapter examines how the state socialist order asserted its systemic exceptionalism (a pattern of development distinguishing socialism from capitalism) in the field of modern mobility, using Communist Hungary as a case study. More specifically, it considers the everyday practices of elite mobility in Hungary during the period 1956–1980 by focusing on the members of the salaried apparatus of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (HSWP). The chapter begins with a discussion of policies aimed at containing the rising costs of automobility and to put a stop to sneaking privatization. It then shows how the everyday practices of apparatus mobility became a major force behind private car-based mobility at the expense of both collective transport and personal car rental and sharing. It also tackles the question of whether state socialism could assert an alternative modernity antithetical to capitalist modernity. It argues that the socialist mode of consumption failed to assert itself in the field of personal transportation in Communist Hungary.Less
This chapter examines how the state socialist order asserted its systemic exceptionalism (a pattern of development distinguishing socialism from capitalism) in the field of modern mobility, using Communist Hungary as a case study. More specifically, it considers the everyday practices of elite mobility in Hungary during the period 1956–1980 by focusing on the members of the salaried apparatus of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party (HSWP). The chapter begins with a discussion of policies aimed at containing the rising costs of automobility and to put a stop to sneaking privatization. It then shows how the everyday practices of apparatus mobility became a major force behind private car-based mobility at the expense of both collective transport and personal car rental and sharing. It also tackles the question of whether state socialism could assert an alternative modernity antithetical to capitalist modernity. It argues that the socialist mode of consumption failed to assert itself in the field of personal transportation in Communist Hungary.
Elke Beyer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449918
- eISBN:
- 9780801463211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449918.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter examines how planning for mobility, especially automobility, shaped designs for city centers in the USSR and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the 1960s. Taking the first ...
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This chapter examines how planning for mobility, especially automobility, shaped designs for city centers in the USSR and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the 1960s. Taking the first All-Union Conference on Urban Planning held in Moscow in 1960, it traces the evolution of urbanist debates in the architectural press and the urban design practice of the two countries. It discusses the general plans for Togliatti in 1968 and Moscow in 1971, both of which represented official approval of a definitive model for the modern Soviet city, and situates the fragmentary realization of these plans within the context of urbanism. The chapter also considers conceptions of space and “utopias of usage” at the root of urban planning and how central urban spaces were engineered and represented as spaces of movement.Less
This chapter examines how planning for mobility, especially automobility, shaped designs for city centers in the USSR and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) during the 1960s. Taking the first All-Union Conference on Urban Planning held in Moscow in 1960, it traces the evolution of urbanist debates in the architectural press and the urban design practice of the two countries. It discusses the general plans for Togliatti in 1968 and Moscow in 1971, both of which represented official approval of a definitive model for the modern Soviet city, and situates the fragmentary realization of these plans within the context of urbanism. The chapter also considers conceptions of space and “utopias of usage” at the root of urban planning and how central urban spaces were engineered and represented as spaces of movement.
Gary S. Cross
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226341644
- eISBN:
- 9780226341781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226341781.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The automobile created a special if ultimately limited opportunity for white working class boys to acquire and display distinctly modern mechanical skills not only in driving, but in repairing, ...
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The automobile created a special if ultimately limited opportunity for white working class boys to acquire and display distinctly modern mechanical skills not only in driving, but in repairing, restoring, and retrofitting used cars. This offered opportunities for cross-generational bonding (when fathers and sons shared mechanical interests), but also for enabling youth to become vanguards of mechanical progress, leaving dads and granddads behind. The car reinforced the gender divide by putting young males in control of the wheel. Female teens also drove, and the car became for many women early in the twentieth century, a mark of liberation; but more common was the identification of the machine and automobility with the male. This culture of customizing and souping up had its roots quite naturally in the world of young adult men that was gradually passed down to teens. This transition may have been inevitable, but required crossing a number of bridges.Less
The automobile created a special if ultimately limited opportunity for white working class boys to acquire and display distinctly modern mechanical skills not only in driving, but in repairing, restoring, and retrofitting used cars. This offered opportunities for cross-generational bonding (when fathers and sons shared mechanical interests), but also for enabling youth to become vanguards of mechanical progress, leaving dads and granddads behind. The car reinforced the gender divide by putting young males in control of the wheel. Female teens also drove, and the car became for many women early in the twentieth century, a mark of liberation; but more common was the identification of the machine and automobility with the male. This culture of customizing and souping up had its roots quite naturally in the world of young adult men that was gradually passed down to teens. This transition may have been inevitable, but required crossing a number of bridges.
Gary S. Cross
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226341644
- eISBN:
- 9780226341781
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226341781.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
Beyond the mostly male realm of customizing and racing was another realm of youth in cars—where a distinct high school peer culture thrived. On roads and in back seats of cars young Americans found ...
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Beyond the mostly male realm of customizing and racing was another realm of youth in cars—where a distinct high school peer culture thrived. On roads and in back seats of cars young Americans found settings of competition, communion, and sexuality. There, mid-twentieth century American teens learned how to be one of the boys or girls, discovering the rites of social and sexual disclosure, and much else. These rituals of automobility both prepared the young for modern adulthood and yet also often deferred and evaded that future. This chapter explores the folkways of cruising and parking defined teen male competition and transformed courtship/dating that especially affected females.Less
Beyond the mostly male realm of customizing and racing was another realm of youth in cars—where a distinct high school peer culture thrived. On roads and in back seats of cars young Americans found settings of competition, communion, and sexuality. There, mid-twentieth century American teens learned how to be one of the boys or girls, discovering the rites of social and sexual disclosure, and much else. These rituals of automobility both prepared the young for modern adulthood and yet also often deferred and evaded that future. This chapter explores the folkways of cruising and parking defined teen male competition and transformed courtship/dating that especially affected females.
Jack Reid
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781469655000
- eISBN:
- 9781469655024
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469655000.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
Beginning with a story of Ronald Reagan hitchhiking in his youth, this chapter introduces the book’s topic, central arguments, historiography, and source base. The book covers the history of ...
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Beginning with a story of Ronald Reagan hitchhiking in his youth, this chapter introduces the book’s topic, central arguments, historiography, and source base. The book covers the history of hitchhiking and the ways Americans have understood the practice, beginning just before the Great Depression and ending with the Reagan era. The introduction sets up arguments about the tension between individualism and social cooperation in American culture, the evolution of automobility, perceptions of personal safety, and the decline of the New Deal social order amid the rise of the neoconservatism. The book engages several historiographical discussions, contextualizing the hitchhiker within the history of the hobo and exploring the ways hitchhiking intersected with notions of modern selfhood broader and gender as well as the major social movements in the 20th century.Less
Beginning with a story of Ronald Reagan hitchhiking in his youth, this chapter introduces the book’s topic, central arguments, historiography, and source base. The book covers the history of hitchhiking and the ways Americans have understood the practice, beginning just before the Great Depression and ending with the Reagan era. The introduction sets up arguments about the tension between individualism and social cooperation in American culture, the evolution of automobility, perceptions of personal safety, and the decline of the New Deal social order amid the rise of the neoconservatism. The book engages several historiographical discussions, contextualizing the hitchhiker within the history of the hobo and exploring the ways hitchhiking intersected with notions of modern selfhood broader and gender as well as the major social movements in the 20th century.
Jill D. Snider
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781469654355
- eISBN:
- 9781469654379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469654355.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Chapter 8 describes Headen’s move in 1925 to Albany, Georgia, where he established the Headen Motor Car Company and began the engine work that led to his first patent. The chapter explores the ...
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Chapter 8 describes Headen’s move in 1925 to Albany, Georgia, where he established the Headen Motor Car Company and began the engine work that led to his first patent. The chapter explores the coalition he built in Albany, which comprised black beauty salon owner and clubwoman Emma V. Wynn and her husband fraternal leader and café owner William Wynn; members of the white Chamber of Commerce; black nationalist attorney Henry V. Plummer; and auto enthusiast Edward E. Harris. The chapter also documents Headen’s rise as an inventor, his relationship with white railroad engineer Henry A. Petit (co-inventor on his first patent), and his move away from the coalition model in favor of individual investors, including patent speculator George P. Koelliker and financier George D. Hamilton. The chapter places Headen’s activities in the context of growing African American automobility, the history of bi-fuel engines, and the existing avenues of funding for independent inventors.Less
Chapter 8 describes Headen’s move in 1925 to Albany, Georgia, where he established the Headen Motor Car Company and began the engine work that led to his first patent. The chapter explores the coalition he built in Albany, which comprised black beauty salon owner and clubwoman Emma V. Wynn and her husband fraternal leader and café owner William Wynn; members of the white Chamber of Commerce; black nationalist attorney Henry V. Plummer; and auto enthusiast Edward E. Harris. The chapter also documents Headen’s rise as an inventor, his relationship with white railroad engineer Henry A. Petit (co-inventor on his first patent), and his move away from the coalition model in favor of individual investors, including patent speculator George P. Koelliker and financier George D. Hamilton. The chapter places Headen’s activities in the context of growing African American automobility, the history of bi-fuel engines, and the existing avenues of funding for independent inventors.
Jill D. Snider
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781469654355
- eISBN:
- 9781469654379
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469654355.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The epilogue reflects on what invention meant to Headen and to the larger artisanal class from which he came and examines his legacy. Addressed are his influence on other African American ...
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The epilogue reflects on what invention meant to Headen and to the larger artisanal class from which he came and examines his legacy. Addressed are his influence on other African American transportation technology pioneers, his encouragement of mechanization among British farmers, the role of his bi-fuel engine improvements in supporting the British war effort in World War II, and his long-term influence on engine designs and on anti-icing technologies for air and rotor craft, turbine engines, and wind turbines.
The epilogue also probes historiographical questions illuminated by Headen’s story, including the nature of African American automobility in the 1920s, specifically the participation of black beauty culturalists as investors and the automobile’s role in expanding African American social networks; the influence of early religious leaders on the business strategies of African American entrepreneurs; and the implications that social networks carry for personal success and for future racial advancement.Less
The epilogue reflects on what invention meant to Headen and to the larger artisanal class from which he came and examines his legacy. Addressed are his influence on other African American transportation technology pioneers, his encouragement of mechanization among British farmers, the role of his bi-fuel engine improvements in supporting the British war effort in World War II, and his long-term influence on engine designs and on anti-icing technologies for air and rotor craft, turbine engines, and wind turbines.
The epilogue also probes historiographical questions illuminated by Headen’s story, including the nature of African American automobility in the 1920s, specifically the participation of black beauty culturalists as investors and the automobile’s role in expanding African American social networks; the influence of early religious leaders on the business strategies of African American entrepreneurs; and the implications that social networks carry for personal success and for future racial advancement.
Dimitris Dalakoglou
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781526109330
- eISBN:
- 9781526124234
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526109330.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
The urban topography of Gjirokastër city, where part of the current ethnography was based, is under a continuous process of change during the last two decades. The city has in fact been relocated ...
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The urban topography of Gjirokastër city, where part of the current ethnography was based, is under a continuous process of change during the last two decades. The city has in fact been relocated around the traffic infrastructure, centralising the road which leads to the Albanian-Greek border since the borders opened, in 1990. This appears to be a somewhat predictable spatial transformation for a city which has one third of its population living as migrants in Greece and consumes almost entirely imported Greek products since 1990. However, this transformation of the urban formation is a complex process. This chapter enlightens on how the postsocialist city is enlarged dramatically and how it is reconfigured spatially in reference to the road infrastructure. It will address two main processes, the postsocialist introduction of the car-related spatial practices and the relocation of the urban centre around the road.Less
The urban topography of Gjirokastër city, where part of the current ethnography was based, is under a continuous process of change during the last two decades. The city has in fact been relocated around the traffic infrastructure, centralising the road which leads to the Albanian-Greek border since the borders opened, in 1990. This appears to be a somewhat predictable spatial transformation for a city which has one third of its population living as migrants in Greece and consumes almost entirely imported Greek products since 1990. However, this transformation of the urban formation is a complex process. This chapter enlightens on how the postsocialist city is enlarged dramatically and how it is reconfigured spatially in reference to the road infrastructure. It will address two main processes, the postsocialist introduction of the car-related spatial practices and the relocation of the urban centre around the road.
Lewis H. Siegelbaum
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449918
- eISBN:
- 9780801463211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449918.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This book examines the place of the motor car in the state socialist countries of Eastern Europe, including the USSR. In particular, it considers the dynamic tension between cars and socialism, a ...
More
This book examines the place of the motor car in the state socialist countries of Eastern Europe, including the USSR. In particular, it considers the dynamic tension between cars and socialism, a tension that inhered in the Socialist Car. Albania under the dictator Enver Hoxha represents an extreme case in the awkward fit between cars and communism. Only Kim Il Sung’s Democratic People’s Republic of Korea matched its ban on private car ownership. Elsewhere in the socialist camp the situation was more complicated yet more fascinating. This book explores how the automobile intertwines with the material cultures and consumption practices of the socialist Second World countries. It also discusses the ways that the West was implicated in the production and reception of the Socialist Car and hence of the Eastern Bloc’s aspiration for an “alternative modernity,” a relationship theorized by Michael David-Fox as a transnational history of “entangled modernities.” Finally, it looks at the socialist car from another lens: “automobility”.Less
This book examines the place of the motor car in the state socialist countries of Eastern Europe, including the USSR. In particular, it considers the dynamic tension between cars and socialism, a tension that inhered in the Socialist Car. Albania under the dictator Enver Hoxha represents an extreme case in the awkward fit between cars and communism. Only Kim Il Sung’s Democratic People’s Republic of Korea matched its ban on private car ownership. Elsewhere in the socialist camp the situation was more complicated yet more fascinating. This book explores how the automobile intertwines with the material cultures and consumption practices of the socialist Second World countries. It also discusses the ways that the West was implicated in the production and reception of the Socialist Car and hence of the Eastern Bloc’s aspiration for an “alternative modernity,” a relationship theorized by Michael David-Fox as a transnational history of “entangled modernities.” Finally, it looks at the socialist car from another lens: “automobility”.
Valentina Fava
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449918
- eISBN:
- 9780801463211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449918.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter discusses the history of the automobile industry and automobility in Czechoslovakia between 1945 and 1968, with particular emphasis on the ideological and concrete development of the ...
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This chapter discusses the history of the automobile industry and automobility in Czechoslovakia between 1945 and 1968, with particular emphasis on the ideological and concrete development of the “people’s car.” It examines four moments of particular significance in the history of Czechoslovak automobility: the period between 1945 and 1948, including Alexander Taub’s consultancy; the launch of the first five-year plan (1949–1953), which brought about the marginalization of automobile production; the period that began in 1954, when the automobile was relaunched as a symbol of socialist technology; the period of reform (1963–1968), when the difficulties of the planned economy in coordinating automobile production became more and more evident. The chapter also considers changes in the organization of production that involved the main Czechoslovak auto producer, AZNP (Automobilové Závody, Národní Podnik) (formerly Ŝkoda Auto), after its nationalization. Finally, it shows how the production of the people’s car came into conflict with the ideals of socialism.Less
This chapter discusses the history of the automobile industry and automobility in Czechoslovakia between 1945 and 1968, with particular emphasis on the ideological and concrete development of the “people’s car.” It examines four moments of particular significance in the history of Czechoslovak automobility: the period between 1945 and 1948, including Alexander Taub’s consultancy; the launch of the first five-year plan (1949–1953), which brought about the marginalization of automobile production; the period that began in 1954, when the automobile was relaunched as a symbol of socialist technology; the period of reform (1963–1968), when the difficulties of the planned economy in coordinating automobile production became more and more evident. The chapter also considers changes in the organization of production that involved the main Czechoslovak auto producer, AZNP (Automobilové Závody, Národní Podnik) (formerly Ŝkoda Auto), after its nationalization. Finally, it shows how the production of the people’s car came into conflict with the ideals of socialism.
Brigitte Le Normand
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449918
- eISBN:
- 9780801463211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449918.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter examines the interactions between urban planners, drivers, and market socialism in Belgrade, Yugoslavia’s capital city, during the period 1945–1972. More specifically, it considers the ...
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This chapter examines the interactions between urban planners, drivers, and market socialism in Belgrade, Yugoslavia’s capital city, during the period 1945–1972. More specifically, it considers the evolution in urban planners’ attitude toward automobility from the adoption of Belgrade’s first master plan in 1950 to the adoption of a second master plan in 1972. Because Belgrade’s transformation began immediately at the end of World War II, it also offers a window into urban planning at the inception of the socialist regime. In the new socialist Yugoslavia, the task of rebuilding the capital city after its devastation in two waves of bombardments during the war was given to architect Nikola Dobrović, who was succeeded by Miloŝ Somborski. This chapter shows that the private automobile was more powerful than the authoritarian, even totalitarian, proclivities of Belgrade’s socialist planners.Less
This chapter examines the interactions between urban planners, drivers, and market socialism in Belgrade, Yugoslavia’s capital city, during the period 1945–1972. More specifically, it considers the evolution in urban planners’ attitude toward automobility from the adoption of Belgrade’s first master plan in 1950 to the adoption of a second master plan in 1972. Because Belgrade’s transformation began immediately at the end of World War II, it also offers a window into urban planning at the inception of the socialist regime. In the new socialist Yugoslavia, the task of rebuilding the capital city after its devastation in two waves of bombardments during the war was given to architect Nikola Dobrović, who was succeeded by Miloŝ Somborski. This chapter shows that the private automobile was more powerful than the authoritarian, even totalitarian, proclivities of Belgrade’s socialist planners.
Esther Meier
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449918
- eISBN:
- 9780801463211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449918.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter examines the symbolic significance of streets, and how people took possession of them, in the Soviet city of Naberezhnye Chelny during the Brezhnev era. Naberezhnye Chelny was designed ...
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This chapter examines the symbolic significance of streets, and how people took possession of them, in the Soviet city of Naberezhnye Chelny during the Brezhnev era. Naberezhnye Chelny was designed to be a model city of the future. It was intented to make good, in urban planning terms, on the promises given by the political leadership to the workers in return for their participation in this large project. These promises included a car and an apartment, education, vacation time, and recreation. The chapter first provides a background on truck factory KamAZ and Naberezhnye Chelny before focusing on the vehicles—streetcars, buses, trucks, and cars—that traveled the city streets. It then considers the public transportation system in Naberezhnye Chelny and the extent to which the use of private vehicles was taken into account in the planning of the city. It shows that traffic planning did not assign preferential status to the Socialist Car over buses and the streetcar, and suggests that automobility failed to appear in provincial towns such as Naberezhnye Chelny during the Brezhnev era.Less
This chapter examines the symbolic significance of streets, and how people took possession of them, in the Soviet city of Naberezhnye Chelny during the Brezhnev era. Naberezhnye Chelny was designed to be a model city of the future. It was intented to make good, in urban planning terms, on the promises given by the political leadership to the workers in return for their participation in this large project. These promises included a car and an apartment, education, vacation time, and recreation. The chapter first provides a background on truck factory KamAZ and Naberezhnye Chelny before focusing on the vehicles—streetcars, buses, trucks, and cars—that traveled the city streets. It then considers the public transportation system in Naberezhnye Chelny and the extent to which the use of private vehicles was taken into account in the planning of the city. It shows that traffic planning did not assign preferential status to the Socialist Car over buses and the streetcar, and suggests that automobility failed to appear in provincial towns such as Naberezhnye Chelny during the Brezhnev era.
Lewis H. Siegelbaum
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449918
- eISBN:
- 9780801463211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449918.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter examines the automobility of truck drivers in the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1980s. It looks at truckers partly from the perspective of labor history—who became truckers, the ...
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This chapter examines the automobility of truck drivers in the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1980s. It looks at truckers partly from the perspective of labor history—who became truckers, the conditions of their work, relations among them and with other motorists, their social status, and the extent to which and why these elements changed over time. It also considers the broader cultural significance associated with truck drivers and driving. The chapter first discusses Two Drivers (Ekhali dva shofera), a feature film by Aleksandr Kott, and how it resonates with generations of people and especially truck drivers. It then explores truck drivers’ self-sacrificial heroism during the Great Patriotic War, along with their professionalism and their symbiotic relationship with car owners. It also describes the experiences of a real-live truck driver in the procurement and distribution of goods.Less
This chapter examines the automobility of truck drivers in the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1980s. It looks at truckers partly from the perspective of labor history—who became truckers, the conditions of their work, relations among them and with other motorists, their social status, and the extent to which and why these elements changed over time. It also considers the broader cultural significance associated with truck drivers and driving. The chapter first discusses Two Drivers (Ekhali dva shofera), a feature film by Aleksandr Kott, and how it resonates with generations of people and especially truck drivers. It then explores truck drivers’ self-sacrificial heroism during the Great Patriotic War, along with their professionalism and their symbiotic relationship with car owners. It also describes the experiences of a real-live truck driver in the procurement and distribution of goods.
Corinna Kuhr-Korolev
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801449918
- eISBN:
- 9780801463211
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801449918.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter examines the relationship of women to cars and society in Russia and the Soviet Union since 1990, with particular emphasis on questions of automobility, gender relations, women’s ...
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This chapter examines the relationship of women to cars and society in Russia and the Soviet Union since 1990, with particular emphasis on questions of automobility, gender relations, women’s emancipation, daily life, and consumption. In order to understand car culture from a feminine perspective, the chapter analyzes the meaning of cars for women and the extent to which these meanings have changed over time, especially in recent years, as the number of women drivers has risen dramatically. It also explores whether women, like men, cherished the Soviet dream of consumption, owning a car, and whether they made the usual connection between driving and freedom or independence. Finally, it discusses the relationship, if any, between women’s driving and the emancipation of women, along with women’s attitudes about automobiles and driving.Less
This chapter examines the relationship of women to cars and society in Russia and the Soviet Union since 1990, with particular emphasis on questions of automobility, gender relations, women’s emancipation, daily life, and consumption. In order to understand car culture from a feminine perspective, the chapter analyzes the meaning of cars for women and the extent to which these meanings have changed over time, especially in recent years, as the number of women drivers has risen dramatically. It also explores whether women, like men, cherished the Soviet dream of consumption, owning a car, and whether they made the usual connection between driving and freedom or independence. Finally, it discusses the relationship, if any, between women’s driving and the emancipation of women, along with women’s attitudes about automobiles and driving.
John M. Meyer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780262028905
- eISBN:
- 9780262327107
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262028905.003.0006
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Environmental Studies
Automobility – inclusive of both the physical and cultural aspects of the practice of private ownership and use of automobiles – shapes modern life the world over. Automobility generates a flexible ...
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Automobility – inclusive of both the physical and cultural aspects of the practice of private ownership and use of automobiles – shapes modern life the world over. Automobility generates a flexible source of mobility, privacy, and independence that is often central to the contemporary conception of individual freedom. Yet especially when it becomes the singularly dominant mode of transportation, automobility can also become a coercive practice that consumes massive amounts of space, requires lengthy commutes, increases dependence, and expands state surveillance, in addition to its environmental impacts. This chapter explores automobility’s centrality to conceptions of freedom, both respecting its attraction and identifying spaces for the development of a discourse of freedom. The latter advances alternatives to the hegemony of the private automobile, rooted in a more expansive notion of human flourishing.Less
Automobility – inclusive of both the physical and cultural aspects of the practice of private ownership and use of automobiles – shapes modern life the world over. Automobility generates a flexible source of mobility, privacy, and independence that is often central to the contemporary conception of individual freedom. Yet especially when it becomes the singularly dominant mode of transportation, automobility can also become a coercive practice that consumes massive amounts of space, requires lengthy commutes, increases dependence, and expands state surveillance, in addition to its environmental impacts. This chapter explores automobility’s centrality to conceptions of freedom, both respecting its attraction and identifying spaces for the development of a discourse of freedom. The latter advances alternatives to the hegemony of the private automobile, rooted in a more expansive notion of human flourishing.
Charles Husband, Yunis Alam, Jörg Hüttermann, and Joanna Fomina
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781447315643
- eISBN:
- 9781447315858
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447315643.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Chapter 6 emerged as an irresistible topic which very powerfully augmented many of the points made elsewhere in this book. Whilst acknowledging the significance of the car and the urban myths about ...
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Chapter 6 emerged as an irresistible topic which very powerfully augmented many of the points made elsewhere in this book. Whilst acknowledging the significance of the car and the urban myths about the driving habits of young Asian men; this chapter provides at one level an insight into the intensive investment of individuals into a particular interest (in this case their cars), to the extent that it comes to constitute the basis for a very strong sub-cultural identification amongst its practitioners. This chapter is redolent of untrammelled enthusiasms, and of networks of sharing, that constitute an example of an invisible vitality within a community like Manningham. It points to the importance of identifying and acknowledging the potential of such enthusiasms for enriching lives in urban contexts that may to others appear to be without charm. The car also provides an insight into the differential employment of social and economic wealth within and across ethnic communities. This chapter also necessarily notes the unfortunate capacity of the car to provide a particularly potent means of inter-ethnic irritation on the streetscape of an urban area. The car is revealed to be a potent symbolic marker of intergroup relations.Less
Chapter 6 emerged as an irresistible topic which very powerfully augmented many of the points made elsewhere in this book. Whilst acknowledging the significance of the car and the urban myths about the driving habits of young Asian men; this chapter provides at one level an insight into the intensive investment of individuals into a particular interest (in this case their cars), to the extent that it comes to constitute the basis for a very strong sub-cultural identification amongst its practitioners. This chapter is redolent of untrammelled enthusiasms, and of networks of sharing, that constitute an example of an invisible vitality within a community like Manningham. It points to the importance of identifying and acknowledging the potential of such enthusiasms for enriching lives in urban contexts that may to others appear to be without charm. The car also provides an insight into the differential employment of social and economic wealth within and across ethnic communities. This chapter also necessarily notes the unfortunate capacity of the car to provide a particularly potent means of inter-ethnic irritation on the streetscape of an urban area. The car is revealed to be a potent symbolic marker of intergroup relations.