Harvey Molotch 
Where Stuff Comes From [PDF ebook] 
How Toasters, Toilets, Cars, Computers and Many Other Things Come To Be As They Are

Molotch takes us on a fascinating exploration into the worlds of technology, design, corporate and popular culture. We now see how corporations, designers, retailers, advertisers, and other middle-men influence what a thing can be and how it is made. We see the way goods link into ordinary life as well as vast systems of consumption, economic and political operation. The book is a meditation into the meaning of the stuff in our lives and what that stuff says about us.