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20 - The automobile

from Part IV - Ligaments of Globalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Bernhard Rieger
Edited by
J. R. McNeill  and
Kenneth Pomeranz
J. R. McNeill
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Kenneth Pomeranz
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Summary

This chapter explores the worldwide fascination with automobiles as well as their wider significance, focusing on the changing regimes of car production and consumption. Around 1900, automobiles were socially exclusive and expensive items whose high price derived in part from a mode of production that saw integrated teams of highly skilled workers and artisans assemble vehicles in their entirety. After 1945, general motors consolidated its commercial lead by embracing new forms of labor-saving automation and adopting machine tools to perform several manufacturing processes under the supervision of a single worker. The international proliferation of Japanese production principles is indicative of broader dynamics of globalization. The organizational principles of mass production pioneered in the United States and subsequently transformed in Japan reshaped labor practices not just in the car industry but proved influential across a wide range of sectors.

Keywords

commodificationdigital samplingschizophoniaobjectificationclassical musicglobalized neoliberal capitalism
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 467 - 489
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further reading

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