This PhD thesis considers the culture of technology enthusiasm, principally through an ethnographic study of three UK enthusiast groups: the Telecommunications Heritage Group, the Computer Conservation Society and the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society. The thesis explores the various knowledges, performances and spaces associated with technology enthusiasm, focussing specifically on the relationships between enthusiasts, objects and museums, with particular reference to the collections of the Science Museum in London. This research is situated in the context of wider debates over museums, collections, conservation and access. Chapter 1 introduces technology enthusiasm as the subject of this thesis and highlights the relevant policy contexts. Chapter 2 provides an account of academic scholarship exploring the sociological literature on enthusiasm, fandom and serious leisure, recent work on technical and material cultures, as well as public history and museology. Chapter 3 explores the methodological strategy adopted in this thesis and reflects particularly on the researcher's encounters with enthusiasts and access to museums. Chapter 4 explores how technology enthusiasm is organised in groups, how societies communicate with their members through journals and online discussion forums and how an enthusiasm for technology is performed at group events. Chapter 5 examines the enthusiast's attachment to technology, the practices of collecting and hoarding, the place of technology enthusiasm in the field and at home and the afterlife of the enthusiast's personal collections. Chapter 6 considers the professional and the enthusiast in the museum context and explores their various relationships to technology's material record through ideas of expert knowledge and 'object love'. Finally, chapter 7 identifies the culture of enthusiasm and suggests future directions for research in this area.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:504805 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Geoghegan, Hilary |
| Publisher | Royal Holloway, University of London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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