Sociology of Engineers and Pubic Transport: Route Taxis, Automobilization, (Un)Safety

Abstract

The article analyses technical literature on route taxis in Volgograd comprised of local engineers' publications (architects, urban planners, transport workers). The authors consider engineers as unacknowledged sociologists who make descriptions of contemporary Russian society in terms of their own public transport surveys. Therefore technical literature is regarded not as an object of analysis, but as analytical tool that helps to pose research questions and hypotheses for proper sociological study. Formal analysis of the literature gives some suggestions about the social structure of local community of public transport technical researchers. The content-analysis of the publications helps to highlight "common places" of technical discourse on route taxis such as: 1) increasing number of route taxis and routes as a part of automobilization in contemporary Russia and 2) problems of route taxis' safety.