Aestheticization of the heavy trucks industry — but who will cater for it?
David Sköld, KTH Stockholm
It is often said, these days, that society is becoming all the more aestheticized, or, perhaps rather, that all the more domains of society are undergoing different kinds of aestheticization processes (see e.g. Welsh 1996, Böhme 2003; and for a popular view on the matter, see e.g. Postrel 2004). The German philosopher Gernot Böhme (2003), has even been so bold as to label those realms of society which are geared towards the production and consumption of excesses, an “aesthetic economy”. Such an economy, it is explicitly assumed, is fuelled by human desires rather than needs — “needs which, far from being allayed by their satisfaction, are only intensified.” (ibid., p.73) Moreover, such an economy is one in which technological development cannot “be adequately understood from the perspective of usefulness”, and in which technology is becoming something to enjoy, something which is to be consumed (Böhme 2006, p.65).
As long as this principle is not posited as the dominating principle of value creation in contemporary societies, such observations and conclusions hardly seem very controversial. —Or, for that matter, particularly interesting in their own right, and in their own concerns, e.g., whether or not an aestheticization of reality “forms the basis for a new, practically limitless, exploitation.” (ibid., p.81) However, with an increased interest in the consumer/user of technology, and of development of technological artefacts under such circumstances, they point in an interesting direction, and one in which few, if any, researchers of organization and organizing seem to have paid much interest. Namely, towards theoretical and empirical studies which inquire into, and seek an understanding of, the inner workings of development processes of technological artefacts (or technological systems) from such a perspective — in such an aesthetic economy, so to speak. For few are the attempts to discern the dynamics of aestheticization processes which are transforming the appearance (and possibly also appeal) of technological artefacts, and in which desiring consumers/users, or consumer/user groups, are involved, actively take part.
Based on a close examination of trucker culture, this is, however, the precise aim of this paper. It seeks to present and to theorize a user culture, one might say, for which the technological work tools deployed in daily (or nightly) work, appear to be becoming attached with ever greater aesthetic values. It seeks to explore the workings and the effects of a circular movement of desire at play in this aestheticization process — an endeavor supported mainly by the works of Slavoj Žižek. And finally, it seeks to ponder upon consequences emanating from such a desiring user movement, with regards to the structure of the heavy trucks industry — what actors or agents will, in the future, handle an increasing demand for aesthetic, perhaps custom-tailored refinement, within the industry, and how might this be done? It is clear, that main manufacturing parties, are today having trouble handling desiring, and thus very demanding, users.