Speakers
Description
This paper studies the knowledge the new discipline of transport engineering produced for posing and solving “the parking question” in Finland during the 1960s. This involved estimating parking space needs in cities through vehicle observations and applying trend estimates in car ownership. This paper analyses the production of this knowledge using the Critical Theory of Technology by Andrew Feenberg. While the knowledge is based on the idea that universal principles may be observed in transport activities, it also reflects the need to calibrate and contextualize transport engineering knowledge for the Finnish context. According to Feenberg, the process of creating technology involves the stages of decontextualization, reduction, and systematization. Decontextualization involves separating something from its original context and roles to be used as raw material for a technical artefact. Reduction involves processing the raw material to bring out the qualities that correspond the sought technical affordances. In systematization, the materials are assembled and re-embedded in the context of use, to become a technical artefact. Expressions of these stages can be identified within the transport engineering knowledge. Decontextualization takes place in defining transport as conducted by cars, and as a derivative activity enabling more valued activities. Reduction takes place by outlining the measurable quantities and measurement methods to collect data about (car) transport. The stage of systematization takes place through the collection of data about the Finnish context and provision of local estimations to inform parking policy. While the Critical Theory of Technology is gauged to analyze the production of technical artefacts and systems, here its applicability to analyze technical knowledge taking part in the creation of those systems is demonstrated. This application allows to identify the stage of decontextualization as crucial in the context of the historical establishment car-dependent transport systems. However, without the steps of reduction and systematization, such knowledge would have not been an authoritative and functional guideline for policy. In the process of establishing car-dependent transport systems, also urban space is processed from the space for many uses to a singular function such as parking space. This paper argues that this operation takes place through the processing of the concept of transport itself.
Biography
Maria Käpyvaara, M.Sc.(Tech.), works as a doctoral researcher at Aalto University, Department of Built Environment in Espoo, Finland. Her master’s thesis investigated the interplay between the universal portrayal of a transport concept, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and the meanings and roles it gained in local planning environments. She has previously worked with Smart City development at the City of Helsinki. She is now preparing her thesis that applies philosophy of technology to gain new perspectives on wicked sustainability issues related to transport. Her forthcoming thesis focuses on Andrew Feenberg’s Critical Theory of Technology and subscribes to the idea that technological development should face more informed and democratic governance.
Veera Moll (MSSc) works as a doctoral researcher at Aalto University, Department of Built Environment in Espoo, Finland. Her forthcoming thesis focuses on children’s role in post-war urban planning in Helsinki, Finland. Veera has authored several articles on the urban history of children, exploring it from both a planning perspective and through the lens of children’s experiences. Alongside children’s urban history, her research interests encompass child-friendly urban planning, playgrounds, standardization of children’s play environments and the evolution of children’s mobility and play opportunities in motorized urban contexts.
