Fordist (but not post-Fordist) technol-
ogy. We should be more cautious about identifying the Socialist Car as the quint-
essential manufactured object of real existing socialism for the simple reason that
with the possible exception of nondescript ferroconcrete apartment blocks, the
Eastern Bloc probably did not have a quintessential manufactured object.
37
Urry's
second component-"the major item of individual consumption after housing
which provides status ... and preoccupies criminal justice systems" -seems ap-
posite, although given the generally lower rates of car ownership, criminal justice
systems in the East did not preoccupy themselves with traffic violations. The link-
ages with other industries, services, design and planning operations, and "various
oil-rich nations"-Urry's third component--obviously were weaker, though as Le
Normand, Beyer, Meier, and Rubin emphasize, integrated urban (and suburban)
planning did take the Socialist Car very seriously, and unlike in the West, oil con-
tinued
to
flow. Indeed, the discovery of new reserves in the Soviet interior and
oil's export
to
the West were what made the Lada possible. Still, unlike cars in the
INTRODUCTION
1;:s
West, the Socialist Car failed to generate a viable infrastructure around it; planned
economies simply could not cope with all the details of such a highly sophisticated
system. The fourth component-"quasi-private mobility"-is the only one of the
six that probably should be weighted more strongly in the Eastern Bloc by virtue
of the relative scarcity of other private or quasi-private venues. In fact, in addition
to
Moser's point that we need
to
view "usage"
in
a wider perspective, it should be
acknowledged that the principal thing that is consumed in connection with cars
is precisely this quasi-private mobility, and in the case of the Socialist Car that
dimension loomed very large. The last two components-the cultural and envi-
ronmental consequences of car use-though less extensive than in some Western
countries, replicated Western patterns quite closely and, in the case of "major dis-
courses of what constitutes the good life;' obviously internalized them.
38
The Eastern Bloc's version of automobility both replicated and departed from
Western standards. So
too
did the car cultures and the "vernacular, generic mo-
torscapes [that] stitch the local and the national together through their serial
reproduction across space:'
39
Refraining from wearing seat belts in order not
to
offend the driver (or if you
were
the driver, not wanting
to
appear unmanly); ex-
pecting
to
settle with the traffic police if stopped rather than going through com-
plicated formal procedures; adorning one's car with bunting, dolls, or some other
good-luck charm on the occasion of a wedding; removing windshield wipers after
parking; being prepared
to
maintain one's own car; and a host of other practices
comprised the cultures. The motorscapes ranged from isolated and dangerous
to
crowded and dangerous. In these respects, the world inhabited by the Socialist Car
