Modernization of Transportation Means and its Shift in Worldview of Traditional Community: A Case Study of Sundanese Culture in Bandung

Abstract

ABSTRACT : The gathering culture in the Sundanese traditional life is visualized in the forms such as: cooperation, discussion, harmony, mutual cooperation, and mutual helping among the community members. The rapid social changes in recent decades make a shift in cultural values; as the impacts of economic, technological, and information progress. The high economic growth in West Java , with Bandung as the growth center , affects the social and cultural changes in community. The results of research showed that the Sundanese values getting decreased and less felt by people in the urban everyday life. The car and its design have been mediating concepts which embedded in the speed of the modern transport system as the manifestation of man's obsession to enjoy the total experience of speed, safe , and comfortable. Modernization in the context of modern car design is on its way that gradually transforming the concept of sense within the Sundanese traditional concepts unity in the urban areas. If at first natural harmony to be hold in the concept of moving, the technology development and the increasing speed of the car changed the initial balance concept. Furthermore, the closed-car design has a role in changing the orientation of individual users and change the person with Sundanese cultur al background in giving a meaning. Sundanese meaning , that ideally should be owned by the Sundanese tradition’s heir as social actors who can also be understood by others, is now shifted into a meaning that is only understood by him /her self or his /her community alone. KEY WORDS : Sundanese v alue, social changes , car, s peed, m eaning, u rban, modern transport system , r epresentation , and concept of sense . About the Author: Y annes Martinus P asaribu is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design ITB (Bandung Institute of Technology), Jalan Ganesha No.10 Tamansari, Bandung 40132, West Java, Indonesia. For academic interests, the author can be contacted via phone at: +62816-623240 or e-mail at: ergolib@gmail.com How to cite this article? Pasaribu, Yannes Martinus. (2015). “Modernization of Transportation Means and its Shift in Worldview of Traditional Community: A Case Study of Sundanese Culture in Bandung” in TAWARIKH: International Journal for Historical Studies , Vol.6(2) April, pp.237-258. Bandung, Indonesia: Minda Masagi Press and UNHAS Makassar, ISSN 2085-0980. Chronicle of the article: Accepted (January 31, 2014); Revised (October 9, 2014); and Published (April 28, 2015).