Putting the Car Before the Horse: The Diffusion of the Automobile and the Rise of Technocratic Primacy

A key question in the literature of technology in society is the degree to which technology is a product of society and vice versa. A related question is how the differing cross-causal lines between the two change both technological and social forms. This paper considers these questions by conducting a review of the literature on technology and society, and then conducting a structured historical examination of the social, economic, and technical dimensions of the rolling-out and utilisation of the automobile in the United States since the early 20th century in light of that literature. This examination is broken into analytical “phases”, starting with the early days of the auto steeped largely (but not exclusively) in technological idealism, moving through an age of car-ascendancy that peaked in the 1950s and 1960s (with the birth of a literal “car culture”), and into the present day of automobile dependency and changes in auto technology that have varying societal implications that are still largely unexplored. This history is assessed according to three different broad approaches offered by the literature, including (1) an instrumental approach viewing technical change as largely socially “neutral” and technology as primarily driven by the need to solve specific material problems; (2) a values approach in which technology is viewed as having technical components but with technical change driven largely as an expression of social values, both of particular interest groups and societal idea-systems more broadly; and (3) a relational approach in which social and technical change arises from an interplay of different entities, human and non-human, relating to each other in dynamic ways. The American historical experience with the automobile suggests that all three models apply at different times, but that instrumental technological approaches have dominated there, often subordinating the human to the machine, rather than the other way around.