Automotive markets in the US and (Western) Europe changed fundamentally during the 1960s-80s, mainly with regard to economic aspects, such as the transition from a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market. Yet the political, social, cultural and ecological framework of these markets also changed as environmental protection, safety, transport and economic policy, gender, advertisment and marketing gained in significance.
In response to these changes, new groups of stakeholders emerged. Intermediaries such as automobile clubs, magazines and specialist books, regulatory institutions, consumers, and consumer protection agencies became more prominent. These groups involved themselves heavily with the automobile and its new contexts such as environmental or safety issues and thus shaped interactions between producers and consumers. Their roles changed accordingly: while consumers potentially gained influence, producers had to increasingly invest in new forms of communication such as advertisement and marketing.
Against this backdrop, the workshop seeks to analyze the driving forces, scope, shape and relevance of structural changes in the automobile markets of the 1960s-80s, with a special focus on the new groups of stakeholders. The paradigm of "practices of comparison" that has been established by the Bielefeld Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1288 offers a fruitful perspective on this problem (more at https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/sfb/sfb1288/). Central to the subproject of the CRC that organizes the workshop is the role of practices of comparisons as both pre-conditions and results of competition and cooperation within markets. Good examples for this are the car comparison tests made by specialist magazines that relate the different producers and products to one another and thus create competitive situations.
The workshop offers the possibility to discuss this research and to place it in the broader context of changing automotive markets during the 1960s-80s. We welcome contributions that address practices of competition and cooperation within markets for new and used cars, the history and activities of companies, advertising agencies, automobile clubs, specialist magazines, state regulators, environmental and consumer protection agencies as well as producers and consumers. We are also interested in comparisons to developments in other markets, particularly in Eastern Europe, and we are looking forward to an open discussion, including of contributions that arise from ongoing PhD projects.
If you are willing to participate in the workshop, please send an abstract of up to 500 words and a short CV (up to 300 words) to the organizers by April 15. Feedback on whether your proposal has been accepted will be provided by May 15. Travel and accommodation expenses will be reimbursed to participants.