Open Access“Dangerous Instrumentality”: The Bystander as Subject in Automobility
Author(s) -
Jain Sarah S. Lochlann
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
cultural anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.669
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1548-1360
pISSN - 0886-7356
DOI - 10.1525/can.2004.19.1.61
Subject(s) - liability , crash , subject (documents) , object (grammar) , space (punctuation) , bystander effect , public space , public good , business , sociology , law and economics , criminology , psychology , economics , social psychology , engineering , computer science , finance , microeconomics , architectural engineering , artificial intelligence , library science , programming language , operating system
The automobile has been rendered invisible as a designed object that injures not only its consumers but other users of the street. This blind spot in how liability has been distributed in crash injuries has had three primary effects. First, it has resulted in a material distribution of goods in which the legal liability of automobile design as a cause of injury has been minimized. Second, it has determined how goods such as public space have been distributed, and third, it has had a constitutive role on how social and legal subjects such as a bad mothers and negligent drivers have been produced.