Anschaffungsvorschläge für Moraglio, Massimo

On March 26th, 1923, in a formal ceremony, construction of the Milan-Alpine Lakes autostrada officially began, the preliminary step toward what would become the first European motorway. That Benito Mussolini himself participated in the festivities indicates just how important the project was to Italian Fascism. Driving Modernity recounts the twisting fortunes of the autostrada, which-alongside railways, aviation, and other forms of mobility-Italian authorities hoped would spread an ideology of technological nationalism. It explains how Italy ultimately failed to realize its mammoth infrastructural vision, addressing the political and social conditions that made a coherent plan of development impossible.

Over the past ten years, the study of mobility has demonstrated groundbreaking approaches and new research patterns. These investigations criticize the concept of mobility itself, suggesting the need to merge transport and communication research, and to approach the topic with novel instruments and new methodologies. Following the debates on the role of users in shaping transport technology, new mobility research includes debates from sociology, planning, economy, geography, history, and anthropology. This edited volume examines how users, policy-makers, and industrial managers have organized and continue to organize mobility, with a particularly attention to Europe, North America, and Asia. Taking a long-term and comparative perspective, the volume brings together thirteen chapters from the fields of urban studies, history, cultural studies, and geography. Covering a variety of countries and regions, these chapters investigate how various actors have shaped transport systems, creating models of mobility that differ along a number of dimensions, including public vs. private ownership and operation as well as individual vs. collective forms of transportation. The contributions also examine the extent to which initial models have created path dependencies in terms of technology, physical infrastructure, urban development, and cultural and behavioral preferences that limit subsequent choices.

The main purpose of the eleven contributions to this volume is to reconsider and re-assess the role of cores and peripheries in shaping modern socio-technical systems. From this perspective they explore a terrain of highly complex systems mainly operating on the so-called Western model: Railways, telegraphs, motor vehicles and airports were, in fact, all born in classic cores areas in the West and then spread out into the peripheries. The approach in itself is not new, but this volume has managed to bring out interestingly innovative elements and viewpoints. The contributors are not content with the traditional definitions of peripheries and flows, but tend to put them to the test, revise them and eventually offer critiques. The result is a tempering of the monolithic and traditional concept of a one-way transfer. No longer, therefore, a simple and linear act of adoption, but a recourse to adaptation - changes in meaning, use and perception. The volume is a starting point for future explorations on the subject of science and technology studies and takes part in a wider discussion of globalisation, global and transnational history. The main purpose of the eleven contributions to this volume is to reconsider and re-assess the role of cores and peripheries in shaping modern socio-technical systems. From this perspective they explore a terrain of highly complex systems mainly operating on the so-called Western model: Railways, telegraphs, motor vehicles and airports were, in fact, all born in classic cores areas in the West and then spread out into the peripheries. The approach in itself is not new, but this volume has managed to bring out interestingly innovative elements and viewpoints. The contributors are not content with the traditional definitions of peripheries and flows, but tend to put them to the test, revise them and eventually offer critiques. The result is a tempering of the monolithic and traditional concept of a one-way transfer. No longer, therefore, a simple and linear act of adoption, but a recourse to adaptation - changes in meaning, use and perception. The volume is a starting point for future explorations on the subject of science and technology studies and takes part in a wider discussion of globalisation, global and transnational history.