The Machine in the City: Public Appropriation of the Tramway in Britain and Germany, 1870-1915

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Machine in the City

T2 - Public Appropriation of the Tramway in Britain and Germany, 1870-1915

AU - Schmucki, Barbara

PY - 2012/11

Y1 - 2012/11

N2 - This article explores how tramways were publically appropriated, in what way people responded to the new modes of transport and how they integrated them into their lives and urban environments. The approach of public appropriation shifts the focus away from the technology and tramway companies to the users of the new modes and opens the field to the analysis of the interrelationship between transport technology and urban cultures in a comparative perspective. The study concludes that people were more critical of horse than of electric tramways. The often quoted “massive public opposition” to electrification turns out to be much weaker than hitherto assumed. Only by the mid 1910s the urban masses, upper classes and workers, had fully appropriated them as modes to serve their working and leisure habits, as fashionable and as a very positive and visual sign for the ability and prestige of the city and an urban community.

AB - This article explores how tramways were publically appropriated, in what way people responded to the new modes of transport and how they integrated them into their lives and urban environments. The approach of public appropriation shifts the focus away from the technology and tramway companies to the users of the new modes and opens the field to the analysis of the interrelationship between transport technology and urban cultures in a comparative perspective. The study concludes that people were more critical of horse than of electric tramways. The often quoted “massive public opposition” to electrification turns out to be much weaker than hitherto assumed. Only by the mid 1910s the urban masses, upper classes and workers, had fully appropriated them as modes to serve their working and leisure habits, as fashionable and as a very positive and visual sign for the ability and prestige of the city and an urban community.

KW - TRANSPORT

KW - URBAN

KW - USER EXPERIENCE

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84867528036&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0096144211435121

DO - 10.1177/0096144211435121

M3 - Article

SN - 0096-1442

VL - 38

SP - 1060

EP - 1093

JO - Journal of Urban History

JF - Journal of Urban History

IS - 6

ER -