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date: 17 April 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This chapter offers a multi-level interpretation of container logistics as one of today’s key organizational principles. As a universal storage and transport means for cargo as well as a conceptual entity that connects the worlds of physical goods and digital data, the container can be understood as the realization of a rationalistic utopia of organization. Discussing the parts, principles, motifs, and multiple uses of containers in and outside of their logistical systems, the chapter complicates the understanding of the standardized shipping container as a simple, self-evident technical solution by depicting it as a multi-faceted—even poetic—entity.

Keywords: container, computer, logistics, transport, organization, infrastructure, industrialization, globalization, standardization, conceptual metaphor

Alexander Klose

post-doctoral scholar in cultural science and curator, Berlin

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