Automotive industry and techno-economic development in a peripheral country. Local design and serial production of utilitarian vehicles in Argentina (1952-1955)

FACUNDO PICABEA

HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY

TAYLOR AND FRANCIS

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2022

0734-1512

At the beginning of 1950, an Argentine public company carried out the firstexperiments in car production on a series of their own designs in Latin America. Unlike in the specialized central countries, the vehicles were made by engineers and aeronautical technicians in a State aircraft factory. This research aims to answer the following questions: How are capacities generated in knowledge-intensive technologies in peripheral countries? What role does the State play in economic and social development? Using concepts of political economy and the sociology of technology as technology working, technological re-signification and socio-technical alliance, this article analyzes how a set of heterogeneous elements (economic policy, capital, state propaganda, private companies, civil servants, engineers, workers and users), guided a process of technological, economic and social development.