Ein wichtiges gesellschaftliches Integrationsmittel in der Hochmoderne (ca. 1880–1970) bildete das Versprechen einer besseren Zukunft durch technischen Fortschritt. Im Zuge technischer „Errungenschaften“ wuchs das Vertrauen in die Potenziale einer verwissenschaftlichten Technik, soziale und kulturelle Probleme lösen zu können. Besonders neue Technologien wurden zu Sinnbildern des Fortschritts. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg spielte die Automatisierung als Produktions- und Informationstechnik eine zentrale Rolle für das technisierte Fortschrittsversprechen: Sie wurde in beiden deutschen Staaten als revolutionär eingeschätzt und avancierte während des Kalten Krieges zu einem zentralen Thema des Systemwettstreites auf technisch-wissenschaftlichem Gebiet. Während jedoch in der Bundesrepublik um die Interpretation einer vermeintlichen „zweiten industriellen Revolution“ gerungen wurde, war man in der DDR überzeugt, dass die „wissenschaftlich-technische Revolution“ als „Werkzeug der Geschichte“ die kapitalistische Produktion überwinden werde. Die Arbeit fragt dementsprechend nach den historischen Ursachen der Vorstellung unbegrenzter Steigerungsfähigkeit der für das Gemeinwohl einsetzbaren technischen Mittel, welche mit der Automatisierung einen neuerlichen Höhepunkt und eine nahezu singuläre Symbolisierung fand.

Aus der Einleitung: "Entstehung und Entfaltung des Militärisch-Industriellen Komplexes in den USA haben eine vielfältige Literatur in der amerikanischen Geschichtswissenschaft hervorgebracht. Dennoch ist es auffällig, dass die bisherigen Arbeiten sich auf die ökonomischen und technischen Aspekte sowie die Institutionalisierung von Netzwerken zwischen Militär, Staat, Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft beschränken und dabei kulturhistorische Fragestellungen weitgehend außen vor lassen. Den Transformationsprozess der amerikanischen Ingenieurwissenschaften während und nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, der hier untersucht wird, betrafen jedoch alle drei Dimensionen von Technik, die Historiker gemeinhin untersuchen: das Soziale, die Technik und die Kultur."

No description available.

No description available.

The Swedish industrial research institutes are research organisations that exist somewhat in between academy and industry, fulfilling an intermediary role as well as providing a space for research relevant to industrial companies, and they have a history of being funded by both state and industry as a way to support technical research in Sweden. The present study examines the history one of these institutes – the Institute for Surface Chemistry – with respect to three dimensions of its knowledge production: the role that basic and applied research has played for the institute, its external connections and the heterogeneity of its knowledge production, and how it has evaluated the quality of its research. The time period considered is 1975-2005, a challenging time for the Swedish institute sector, and the analysis is based on an interpretation of annual reports, research programs and newsletters from the period, as well as on interviews with institute managers and researchers.This work contributes to a wider research field in two respects. First, it provides input to the ongoing debate about how a changing research system is linked to changes in knowledge production. Second, it increases our knowledge of the Swedish industrial research institute sector, something interesting in its own right but that also can provide input to the ongoing policy reorientation vis-à-vis these institutes. The main novelty of the work is that it engagessystematically and historically with changes in knowledge production within an industrial research institute, something not done in previous studies of the sector. To briefly summarise the results, applied research gradually becomes more important than basic research at the institute, but basic research still keeps playing a rather large role for some time, even as this roleis downplayed in the official publications. At the same time, the institute becomes more heterogeneous in its knowledge production, associates closer with its industrial partners, and loses some of its independent knowledge production in favour of a more classic intermediary role. During the study period, the institute mainly ascertains the quality of its work through the use of traditional academic standards, and it retains a strong publication culture throughout.Three main conclusions are drawn: that the institute generally has oriented itself more towards its industrial partners; that this is the result of adapting to a situation in which the traditional state funding and political support appear ever more insecure; and that in spite of this general dynamic of adaption, the institute, thanks to a unique knowledge base or strong and well-connected actors, has sometimes been able to defend its preferred modes of knowledge production instead of adapting,something which also has had a notable impact on its development.

My thesis's topic is radio and its influence on society in the First Czechoslovak Republic. The topic of this thesis is approached form a perspective of history of technology. This historical discipline is most widely used within the Western Europe, especially in the Netherlands. The history of technology pays attention to the technology not from excessively technological view, but rather from sociological and cultural view. One of main interests of this historical discipline, lies in the scientists, whose work led to the discovery and technological progress. In my thesis, I will first of all pay attention to the radio as a technological phenomenon. I am going to try to present a new interpretation of the radio. Main interest of this thesis, is going to be technological development of radio from its conception to the spread of this technology, political discussions within the parliament and cultural reflections of this new technology. Key words: radio, history of technology, Czechoslovakia, technology, amateur radio operator, HAM Radio

During the first half of the 20th century, lake lowering was a common practice for agricultural drainage in Sweden. Although this phenomenon led to drastic changes in the Swedish landscape, it has been remarkably understudied. Furthermore, previous research on lake lowering, and on the adjacent subject of hydropower, has mostly taken a social constructivist approach. In contrast, the aim of this study was to generate a posthumanist, symmetric account of a lake lowering project, where the non-human actants involved in the network were seen to act. This in order to better understand the driving forces and power relations emerging in a large technical project. The study took the form of an actor-network analysis of the lowering of Lake Tämnaren in the south-east of Sweden. The analysis consists of a chronological account of the project between the years 1923-1967. During the years predating 1950, investigations into both material and social matters were carried out by two engineers who became spokespersons of the many collectives of actants affected by the lake lowering. In the years between 1950-1953 when the project was carried out, the spokespersons’ accounts of reality were challenged, with varying results. After the works had been completed, the question of maintaining a suitable water level in the lake remained controversial and concerned managing the newly built dam. In brief, the conclusions of the study highlight the role of material agency in transporting and changing power between actants in a network. Forms of material agency were for example: the lake flooding, the hardness of soil, or the floodgates of a dam remaining open.

Observing the Maelstrom  är en publikation som presenterar kritiska perspektiv på teknologi i relation till samhället och design. Den utforskar ämnen som manipulativ webbdesign, subjektiva algoritmer och kommersiell övervakning genom att undersöka teknikhistoria och påföljder av nya medier. Begreppet teknologi tänjs och ifrågasätts. I texterna betraktas skor, smarttelefoner, kranar, glödlampor, pilar, skrivmaskiner, böcker, hjul och kvantdatorer som tekniker som utökar våra möjligheter och formar vårt beteende. Typografin återspeglar alltid sin tids dominerande tekniker och teknologier. Förhållandet mellan teknik och typografi undersöks i Observing the Maelstrom med särskilt fokus på skrivmaskinens tid och IBM:s typografiska historia. Typsnittet Artisan var populärt bland användarna av IBM:s Selectric skrivmaskin, men det har sedan dess till stor del glömts bort. För projektet skapade författaren en ny digital version av Artisan. Här får Artisan ett nytt liv som digitalt typsnitt och dess historia får en unik kontext i denna publikation. / Observing the Maelstrom is a publication that presents critical perspectives on technology, society, and design. It explores topics such as manipulative web design, biased algorithms, and commercial surveillance, by looking at the history of technology and the social impact of new media. The concept of technology is stretched and questioned. The texts consider shoes, smartphones, faucets, lightbulbs, arrows, typewriters, books, wheels, and quantum computers as technologies that expand our abilities and shape our behavior. Typography always reflects the dominant techniques and technologies of its time. In the publication, the relationship between technology and typography is examined with a particular focus on the typewriter era and the typographic history of IBM. The typeface Artisan was popular with users of the IBM Selectric typewriter but has since been mostly forgotten. For the project, the author created a new digital version of Artisan. Therefore Artisan gains a second life as a digital typeface and its history is given a unique context in this publication.

No description available.

This thesis will examine the portrayal and reception of ‘novel’ technology as constructed spectacle in the military and popular coverage of the Abyssinian (1868) and Ashanti (1873-4) expeditions. It will be argued that new and ‘novel’ military technologies, such as the machine gun, Hale rocket, cartridge rifle, breach-loading cannon, telegraph, railway, and steam tractor, were made to serve symbolic roles in a technophile discourse that cast African expansion as part of a conquest of the natural world. There was a growing confidence in mid-Victorian Britain of the Empire’s dominant position in the world, focused particularly on technological development and embodied in exhibition culture. During the 1860s and ‘70s, this confidence was increasingly extended to the prospect of expansion into Africa, which involved a substantial development of the ‘idea’ of Africa in the British imagination. The public engagement with these two campaigns provides a window into this developing culture of imperial confidence in Britain, as well as the shifting and contested ideas of race, climate, and martial prowess. The expeditions also prompted significant changes to understandings of ‘small wars’, a concept incorporating several important pillars of Victorian culture. It will be demonstrated that discourses of technological superiority and scientific violence were generated in response to anxieties of the perceived dangers posed by the African interior. Accounts of the expeditions demonstrated a strong hope, desire to claim, and tendency to interpret that novel European technology could tame and subjugate the African climate, as well as African populations. This study contributes to debates over the popularity of imperialism in Victorian society. It ties the popularity of empire to the social history of technology, and argues that the Abyssinian and Ashanti expeditions enhanced perceptions of military capability and technological superiority in the Victorian imagination. The efficacy of European technology is not dismissed, but approached as a proximate cause of a shift in culture, termed ‘the technologisation of imperial rhetoric’.