The Common Heritage of the Socialist Car Culture

Gatejel, Luminita; Siegelbaum, Lewis H.

doi:10.7591/cornell/9780801449918.003.0009

Cited by 6 publications

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“…Even if, in the late 1960s, Romania began to massproduce cars, the level of car ownership remained low (Murgescu, 2010). Despite its extremely high desirability (Gătejel, 2011), it was hardly accessible. In that context, the motorcycle was perceived, as in other countries, as the poor people's car.…”

Section: Affinity and Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motorcycles, body and risk: The motorcyclists’ social career

Jderu

2013

Journal of Sociology

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In this article, I approach motorcycling as a learning process. The main concept used is that of the social career, as advanced by Erving Goffman and David Matza. I highlight the specific bodily practices and risks that occur in the successive stages of a motorcyclist's social career. Throughout their career as motorcyclists, riders learn how to manage successive risks. The riding body may be approached as a case of voluntary risk-taking, a structural factor identified in many contemporary societies. Motorcycling is thus similar to hang gliding, skydiving, scuba diving or rock climbing. The study is based on data gathered from the main online motorcycling forum in Romania, participant observation carried out among motorcyclists in Romania in 2008 and 2009, and conversations and interviews with motorcyclists. I suggest that the risk implied by using motorcycles depends on the stage that a person is at in his or her social career.

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Section: Affinity and Riskmentioning

confidence: 99%

Motorcycles, body and risk: The motorcyclists’ social career

Jderu

2013

Journal of Sociology

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“…54 As Luminita Gatejel has shown, even in socialist countries this discourse did not correspond to reality because 'instead of just one car for everybody, we find one model for each class, ordered along a strict hierarchy.' 55 Advertisements for the most expensive cars almost disappeared in Portugal between 1974 and 1976. Instead, motor sales and advertisements were dominated by small, cheap, low-power and economical city cars, and also by estate cars.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…This might be related to one of the features of socialist car culture and its assertion that 'cars in socialist countries are simply means of transport and bear no signs of social distinction.' 54 As Luminita Gatejel has shown, even in socialist countries this discourse did not correspond to reality because 'instead of just one car for everybody, we find one model for each class, ordered along a strict hierarchy.' 55 Advertisements for the most expensive cars almost disappeared in Portugal between 1974 and 1976.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Political Transitions, Value Change and Motorisation in 1970s Portugal

Sousa

Marques

2013

The Journal of Transport History

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During the revolutionary period of 1974-76, there was vigorous debate in Portugal regarding the role of automobiles in the desired new society. The dispute was reinforced by the first international oil crisis. Strong ideological rhetoric was deployed either to defend the potentially liberating role of the automobile or to condemn its 'bourgeois' underpinnings. This debate influenced social movements, policies, perceptions and views of social actors, thus contributing to market distortions, a short-lived disappearance of luxury and sports cars and to the creation of new models deemed to be adapted to the 'true' needs of the Portuguese. It also contributed to changes in automobile assemblage industry, road policy and delays in the implementation of road safety measures. Environmental, safety and traffic concerns were subdued, for a while, by a more essentialist approach to car consumption, with opposing interests trying to define the social spirit of automobile ownership and usage. The political turmoil of the period and the lack of coherent and durable policies account for the period being an intermission and not the beginning of a new trend.

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Editors’ Introduction

Babiracki¹,

Jersild²

2016

Socialist Internationalism in the Cold War

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The Common Heritage of the Socialist Car Culture

Cited by 6 publications

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Motorcycles, body and risk: The motorcyclists’ social career

Motorcycles, body and risk: The motorcyclists’ social career

Political Transitions, Value Change and Motorisation in 1970s Portugal

Editors’ Introduction

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