ABSTRACT
The history of America after 1970 is one of the progressive dismantling of the system of Fordism whose construction began a half-century before. Yet, trendy conceptions about post-Fordism aside, there have emerged no viable institutional alternatives, no new social regimes to regulate the relation between production and consumption. The measures undertaken to solve the crisis of Fordism have been largely dictated by the logic of Fordism itself. Even as the employment and wage foundation of mass production has eroded, consumerism has remained the major focus of popular solutions to Fordism's problems. Consequently, the mainstay of American consumerism, the automobile, has maintained its importance as a cultural icon. But despite concerted efforts by automakers and their designers, the car has yet to regain the cultural significance it achieved during the heyday of Fordism.
