Description
Over the past thirty years, the history of technology has been so extensively renewed that many once-canonical narratives have been invalidated.
This collective work takes account of several of these major recompositions: ancient periods were never eras of technical stagnation; techniques are not “diffused”, but interpenetrate and reinvent themselves as they travel; invention is not an individual epiphany, but a gradual and often collective process; far from neutral, the material is endowed with its own agentivity; the notions of capitalism, gender and the environment are fertile contributions to the history of techniques, and have served to invalidate many naiveties.
These recent works have put an end to the discontinuous vision of a history made up of straightforward technical ruptures, in favor of more complex descriptions that provide a better grasp of the real dynamics of today’s world.
Table of Contents
Introduction ix
Guillaume CARNINO and Xavier GUCHET
Chapter 1 The Medieval Watermill: A History of Technology 1
Lisa CALISTE and Catherine VERNA
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 The era of mills 2
1.2.1 In search of origins 2
1.2.2 Technical temporalities 5
1.3 What is a mill? 8
1.3.1 Hydraulic developments and structures 9
1.3.2 Horizontal wheels, vertical wheels 10
1.3.3 Tools in motion 13
1.4 Mills and men 15
1.4.1 From banal seigniory to medieval enterprise 15
1.4.2 Men at work 18
1.5 References 20
Chapter 2 China and the Global History of Techniques 29
Delphine SPICQ
2.1 Introduction 29
2.2 Diffusionist model 30
2.3 Circulation model (of techniques) and the cultural turn 33
2.4 Global history model 35
2.5 Conclusion 39
2.6 References 40
Chapter 3 Invention: Rehabilitating a Concept 43
Liliane HILAIRE-PÉREZ
3.1 Introduction 43
3.2 Technical intelligence in question 45
3.3 Banality of invention 48
3.4 Inventive labor 50
3.5 References 55
Chapter 4 Materials and the History of Techniques 61
Valérie NÈGRE
4.1 Introduction 61
4.2 A new understanding of innovation 65
4.3 Forms of knowledge based on matter? 68
4.4 Reintroducing techniques into culture 70
4.5 Conclusion 72
4.6 References 73
Chapter 5 Concepts of the History of Techniques: Technology 81
Eric SCHATZBERG
5.1 Introduction: an odd concept 81
5.2 History of technology or history of techniques? 82
5.3. Roots of the English-language concept of technology: an overview .. 87
5.4 Discourse of the arts from the ancient world to the enlightenment 90
5.5 Technology fills a semantic void 91
5.6 Technology triumphant 93
5.7 References 94
Chapter 6 Industry in the History of Techniques 97
Guillaume CARNINO
6.1 Introduction 97
6.2 Defining industry 99
6.3 “Industrial revolution” and industrialization 103
6.4 Know-how, grammatization and proletarization 112
6.5 References 119
Chapter 7 From Standards to Commodification (and Back Again): Histories of Technology and Capitalism 127
Joris MERCELIS
7.1 Introduction 127
7.2 Standards and standardization: economic and technological histories 130
7.3 Standardization and commodification 136
7.4 Conclusion 139
7.5 References 140
Chapter 8 History of Techniques and the Environment 147
Anaël MARREC
8.1 Introduction 147
8.2 Environment in the history of techniques (1960s–1990s): natural background, social context, resources 150
8.2.1 History of techniques through great universal sagas: the environment as a natural backward 151
8.2.2 History of companies and social studies: social and economic context, instrumental materiality 152
8.2.3 History of engineers, cities and industry: pollution, waste, resources 153
8.3 Environmental history and the history of techniques 155
8.3.1 Techniques in American environmental history: from the destruction of nature to hybrids 155
8.3.2 An environmental history of technology: “envirotechnical” approaches 156
8.3.3 An environmental history of techniques? 158
8.4 Conclusion 161
8.5 References 162
Chapter 9 Techniques and Gender 169
Delphine GARDEY
9.1 Women, machines and progress 169
9.2 Tools, appropriation and qualification 170
9.3 Machinism, techniques and masculinities 172
9.4 Technical cultures and women’s industries 173
9.5 Invent, innovate and undertake 174
9.6 Consume, choose and mobilize 175
9.7 Interpret, interact and socialize 176
9.8 Scripts, facts and identities 177
9.9 Communication, information technology and digital worlds 178
9.10 Self-techniques, sex/gender and sexualities 179
9.11 Detour, criticism and protest 180
9.12 References 181
Chapter 10 History of Techniques and Anthropology: Measure, Means, Mirror 189
Nathan SCHLANGER
10.1 Introduction 189
10.2 Techniques as a measure 192
10.3 Techniques as a means 195
10.4 Techniques as mirrors 201
10.5 References 205
Chapter 11 Philosophy and History of Techniques 211
Xavier GUCHET
11.1 Introduction 211
11.2 The beginnings of a dialogue between two young disciplines, from the 1970s onward 213
11.3 The “empirical turn” in the philosophy of technology and its impact on the relations between philosophers and historians of techniques 218
11.4 Before the 1970s 224
11.5 Concrete elements of interdisciplinary dialogue 227
11.6 Conclusion 230
11.7 References 232
List of Authors 235
Index 237
