Showing papers in "History and Technology in 2007"
TL;DR: In this article, a demarcation of postmodernity from modernity is proposed, which is based on the primacy of science relative to technology prior to circa 1980, and the relative importance of technology relative to science since about that date.
Abstract: edu The abrupt reversal of culturally ascribed primacy in the science‐technology relationship—namely, from the primacy of science relative to technology prior to circa 1980, to the primacy of technology relative to science since about that date—is proposed as a demarcator of postmodernity from modernity: modernity is when ‘science’ could, and often did, denote technology too; postmodernity is when science is subsumed under technology. In support of that demarcation criterion, I evidence the breadth and strength of modernity’s presupposition of the primacy of science to and for technology by showing its preposterous hold upon social theorists—Marx, Veblen, Dewey—whose principles logically required the reverse, viz. the primacy of practice; upon 19th and 20th century engineers and industrialists, social actors whose practical interests likewise required the reverse; and upon the principal theorizers in the 1970s of the role of science in late 20th century technology and society. The reversal in primacy between science and technology ca 1980 came too unexpectedly, too quickly, and, above all, too unreflectively to have resulted from the weight of evidence or the force of logic. Rather, it was a concomitant of the onset of postmodernity. Oddly, historians of technology have remained almost wholly unacknowledging of postmodernity’s epochal elevation of the cultural standing of the subject of their studies, and, specifically, have ignored technology’s elevation relative to science. This I attribute to the ideological character of that discipline, and, specifically, to its strategy of ignoration of science.
225 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the determining role of nuclear hazards in the emergence of a new category of risks, "global risks", is examined and the role of scientists in this process is discussed.
Abstract: This paper aims to examine the determining role of nuclear hazards in the emergence of a new category of risks, ‘global risks’ and to retrace how an international structure for expertise and regulation of these risks was constructed as result of American foreign policy, international relations in the context of the Cold War, public mobilization against nuclear weapons, criticism and demands for “social precautions” as well as scientific research interests and professional legitimatization. By focusing on the role of scientists in this process, this paper aims to discuss the political and social role of these regulation activities.
51 citations
TL;DR: The role of history in analyzing risks in the fields of science and technology has been discussed in this paper, where the authors stress the necessity not only to compile a history of risk, but also to account for the emergence, development and uses of risk and risk society.
Abstract: Since the mid-1980s “risk” has constituted a sort of banner to which the social sciences have rallied. It has given rise to a whole range of research in the political science, sociology and economics spheres. This paper is a general introduction to a History and Technology special issue which attempt to construct analytical frameworks and research proposals that may contribute to a historization and a denaturalization of risk. This paper considers the role of history in analyzing risks in the fields of science and technology. It aims to show the importance of history in considering risk and the societal mutations to which it gives rise or in which it plays a central role. Ultimately, our aim is to stress the necessity not only to compile a history of “risk”, but also to account for the emergence, development and uses of risk and “risk society”.
47 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight four long-term trends that significantly influenced how that system took charge of public health, while exposing a series of problems with pesticide-related health management practices.
Abstract: By analysing aspects of the development and functioning of the French pesticide registration system up to 1972, this paper highlights four long‐term trends that significantly influenced how that system took charge of public health, while exposing a series of problems with pesticide‐related health management practices. It argues that the function of these practices was not so much to protect populations from the detrimental effects of pesticides but to enable the development of intensive agriculture and the pesticide industry. Ultimately, it stresses the need to introduce long‐term perspectives into risk studies and to place economic interests at the core their analyses.
42 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine initiatives in engineering formation in the USA as, in part, responses to dominant territorial identities defining what counts as progress, and conclude that no metric of progress had yet scaled up to a level of dominance.
Abstract: This paper examines initiatives in engineering formation in the USA as, in part, responses to dominant territorial identities defining what counts as progress. The absence of a primary method of engineering formation during the antebellum period suggests that no metric of progress had yet scaled up to a level of dominance. Robert Thurston's efforts in the 1890s to scale up school‐based formation without liberal education did not fit a country that emphasized high‐volume production at low costs. The attempts of the Wickenden study in the 1920s to achieve coordination did not fit a country highlighting self‐realization through consumption. The 1955 Grinter Report achieved great success when the sudden appearance of Sputnik scaled up a new territorial identity for the USA. Overall, by responding to the evolving metric of low cost, mass use, advocates of engineering formation have designed engineers to serve the country.
35 citations
TL;DR: The authors contextualize this work by providing a series of case studies on various 19th-century technological controversies (ranging from deforestation to vaccination and the chemical industry) and argue that what is usually put under the label'resistance' to progress was in fact crucial for the shaping of safer technologies.
Abstract: This article aims at historicizing the 'risk society' thesis (Ulrich Beck). I first present an important book by Eugene Huzar, La fin du monde par la science (Paris: Dentu, 1855). The author reflects upon the global catastrophes produced by new technologies and tries to imagine a safer way of governing science and nature. I contextualize this work by providing a series of case studies on various 19th-century technological controversies (ranging from deforestation to vaccination and the chemical industry). I argue that, in every case, what is usually put under the label 'resistance' to progress was in fact crucial for the shaping of safer technologies.
30 citations
TL;DR: The relationship between engineers' identity and the construction of the Mexico from Independence to the present is discussed in this article, where the main periods of political change in Mexican history are covered to highlight how engineers' identities are (re)shaped when the relationship between the State and its population changes.
Abstract: This paper describes and analyzes the relationship between engineers' identity and the construction of the Mexico from Independence to the present. It covers the main periods of political change in Mexican history to highlight how engineers' identities are (re)shaped when the relationship between the State and its population changes. It focuses on the development of engineering education institutions as sites of identity formation where engineers' identities acquire new meanings when the relationship between State, engineers and population is redefined. It concludes with a brief analysis of how engineers' identities today are coping with the challenges of globalization and privatization.
25 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take the case of the city of Lisbon during the second half of the 19th century and suggest that technological artifacts, like steam engines, ports or buildings, assumed the nature of national icons ready to be consumed by urban masses.
Abstract: Although modernization theories of nationalism have stressed the instrumental role of technology in the forging of nations they have neglected how technology itself became a fundamental element of a new shared national culture. Taking the case of the city of Lisbon during the second half of the 19th century this paper aims to suggest that technological artifacts, like steam engines, ports or buildings, assumed the nature of national icons ready to be consumed by urban masses. It also stresses the significance of mass events celebrating the capital city reforms and improvements in a society with high levels of illiteracy. The Portuguese example thus expands its relevance beyond the local context for it is expected that it may offer new hints on how to think about technology in countries depicted in the historiography exclusively by its backwardness.
24 citations
TL;DR: In the second half of the 20th century, at the time of the foundation of the Fifth Republic, French engineers endorsed enthusiastically technocratic ideals as discussed by the authors, which was rooted in a long tradition of connection between French engineering and social preoccupations.
Abstract: During the second half of the 20th century, at the time of the foundation of the Fifth Republic, French engineers endorsed enthusiastically technocratic ideals. Their attitude was not only the product of a specific context. It was rooted in a long tradition of connection between French engineering and social preoccupations. This connection emerged at the time of the creation of the first corps of State engineers in the 17th and 18th centuries. Indeed, State Weber engineers were from the start convinced that they had a social mission. Subsequent episodes, like the Saint-Simonian reflections on the eve of industrialization, or the discussions held in the think tank X-Crise in the aftermath of the 1929 economic crisis contributed also to shape the engineers' sensitivity to social issues. Dwelling on these episodes, but also trying to go beyond their standard assessment, we would like to propose here a more general interpretation of the complex set of relations between French engineering and social thought. In this perspective, the Post-World War II French engineers' technocratic concerns come at the end of a long and complex evolution. This case study should enable a better understanding of the more general connivance between engineering culture and technocratic ideals.
22 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors deal with the national identity of Greek engineers in the interwar era and highlight both the "objective" dimensions (demography, education, sectors of activity, organization of profession) and the corresponding "subjective" components of this identity.
Abstract: This article deals with the national identity of Greek engineers in the inter‐war era. It attempts to highlight both the ‘objective’ dimensions (demography, education, sectors of activity, organization of profession) and the corresponding ‘subjective’ components of this identity. The paper shows that inter‐war Greek engineers were a socio‐professional group with strong elitist characteristics that claimed a leading social role in the country’s modernization and westernization race. This was expressed in a variety of ideological schemes, from the rationalization ideal to technocracy and, ultimately, to a Greek version of reactionary modernism.
18 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors deal with the world of French state engineers in the first half of the 19th century and present an overall perspective of its most marked features, including cultural and intellectual features, especially the idea of systematically applying scientific knowledge to the practical problems encountered by engineers.
Abstract: This article deals with the world of French State engineers in the first half of the 19th century and it aims to present an overall perspective of its most marked features. After briefly examining the different engineering corps of the Ancien Regime and their training institutes, it goes on to deal with the foundation of the Ecole Polytechnique in 1794, which gave French State engineers a unity and a collective identity that had heretofore been lacking, and transformed them into members of a technocratic milieu. The core of the article consists of exploring the professional aspects of this ‘technocracy’ (its internal organization, the values and self‐image of its members, etc.), its cultural and intellectual features, especially the idea of systematically ‘applying’ scientific knowledge to the practical problems encountered by engineers, and the profile of the technocratic intellectual elite, i.e. the engineer‐savant, the proponent and ‘implementer’ of the ‘application’ ideal.
TL;DR: The past few decades have witnessed a massive increase in the amount of research devoted to the modern nation as discussed by the authors, and academic interest in this specific historical form of political and social organizatio...
Abstract: The past few decades have witnessed a massive increase in the amount of research devoted to the modern nation. Academic interest in this specific historical form of political and social organizatio...
TL;DR: In this article, a special issue of History and Technology has been conceived and written by four French historians, whose approach is radically historical, even if they have in mind, and start from, contemporar...
Abstract: This special issue of History and Technology has been conceived and written by four French historians. Their approach is radically historical, even if they have in mind, and start from, contemporar...
TL;DR: In France, chemical expertise was made central to food safety policy when the law on the repression of fraud was passed in 1905 as mentioned in this paper, which was achieved through a social and political process which grounded expertise in business practices rather than in the ambition to determine them.
Abstract: In France, chemical expertise was made central to food safety policy when the law on the repression of fraud was passed in 1905. Far from being seen as a necessity it at first generated vigorous controversies. Most of the producers denounced its lack of reliability and its failure to understand business, especially since chemical expertise challenged more traditional state‐of‐the‐art expertise. It thus had to gain credibility. This was achieved through a social and political process which grounded expertise in business practices rather than in the ambition to determine them.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse changes in the national identity of Italian engineers in relation to the specific form of nation-state building process the country experienced and to specific forms of professional organization in the peninsula.
Abstract: This paper deals with the changing relationship between the Italian engineering profession and the idea of Nation in Italy between the 18th and the early 20th centuries. The main premise is that the modernization of the conditions for exercising the profession began in the pre-unification states, well before the movement towards national unification, and that it is precisely in this diverse history that the essence of the identity of Italian engineers is to be found. Many specific features of the Italian engineering landscape can be traced back to this history: from the strength of 'localism', embodied for example by municipal engineers, to the various legacies inherited from the professional organizations of the Ancien Regime. The aim of this article is to analyse changes in the national identity of Italian engineers in relation to the specific form of nation-state building process the country experienced and to the specific forms of professional organization in the peninsula.