Selling Suburbia An Actor-Network Analysis of the Construction of Levittown, NY

Matthew Goeke

Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Brain, David

Keywords

Suburbia, Actor-Network Theory, Home Ownership

Area of Concentration

Urban Studies

Abstract

In 1947, Levitt & Sons began building the building small, affordable homes for veterans on suburban Long Island by the thousands. Within a few years, Levittown became both the most famous postwar suburb and the target of relentless criticism. This thesis uses the construction of Levittown as a method to examine the vast array of factors that enabled detached suburban home ownership to dominate the American landscape in the second half of the 20th century. By studying this suburb, I evaluate the merits of some competing views on the �causes� of suburban development. Using Michel Callon and Bruno Latour's actor-network theory, I treat these houses as a new technology and focus on the agencies that produced two separate, but closely related actor-networks. First, Levitt & Sons itself, an organization that was able to mass produce an large, historically cheap affordable housing development. Second, the Levittown Cape Cod, the contract it came with, and the community it was embedded within. I conclude by offering a reinterpretation of the various conceptions of suburbia, arguing that actor-network theory provides unique advantages in evaluating how these homes were produced and how they affected their tenants.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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