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Syllabus:

History of Technology, 7.5 Credits

Swedish name: Teknikens idéhistoria

This syllabus is valid: 2015-10-26 valid to 2017-05-28 (newer version of the syllabus exists)

Course code: 1IH047

Credit points: 7.5

Education level: First cycle

Main Field of Study and progress level: History of Science and Ideas: First cycle, has only upper-secondary level entry requirements

Grading scale: Pass with distinction, Pass, Fail

Responsible department: Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies

Revised by: Head of Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, 2015-10-20

Contents

This course is an introduction to the history of technology and the role it has played in shaping modern society. With a particular focus on large-scale technological and industrial processes in the 19th and 20th centuries, the course explores the importance and implications of technology as a cultural idea and a material process in the modern world. Why do some technologies succeed while others don’t? Which roles do users play in technological development? What are the factors that drive innovation and technological development?
 
Through questions like this the course examines the relationships between technology, culture, environment, and gender, between the past and future of technology, from the home to the factory, and on a scale from the bodily to the planetary.
 
The course is taught in English, as an online course over 9-10 weeks. Course participants are expected to actively participate in discussions and presentations throughout the whole course period.
 
 

Expected learning outcomes

After finishing the course, the student should be able to:

  • Describe and discuss the main developments in modern history of technology.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the different knowledge traditions in technological development
  • Analyze the relationships between science, technology, culture, and industrial development
  • Evaluate central attitudes and ideas in contemporary and historical debates about technology, society, and culture
  • Demonstrate ability to work individually and as part of a community of learners to solve problems, summarize, discuss, and analyze material in a scientific perspective.
  • Demonstrate ability to work with different technological media and forms of communication, while reflecting over the influence of the media on communication
  • Demonstrate an ability to communicate in writing and in media

Required Knowledge

General entry requirements

Form of instruction

This is an online course that is taught as a combination of teacher-led introductions, written assignments, and group discussion. The course schedule is asynchronous, so students have flexibility in deciding when to participate, but is divided in weekly themes with requirements for active participation throughout the full course period.
 
Computer and internet access is a requirement for participating in the course. We will be using several different course platforms, but Umeå University’s Cambro platform is the official point of contact for the students.
 

Examination modes

The course features continuous examination in written form. The grade is an overall assessment of the performance at the various examinations and is awarded first when all of the compulsory modules are passed.
 
A student who fails the examination is given one more test opportunity as part of the course. Students who fail the course twice can apply to the Faculty of Arts to have another examiner named. Students who receive a passing grade can not take another test for a higher grade.
 
 
Academic credit transfer
Transfer of credits is handled by Student Services/Degree Evaluation Office. See http://www.student.umu.se/english/getting-your-degree/transfer-of-credits/
 

Literature

Valid from: 2015 week 44

Sundin Bosse
Den kupade handen : historien om människan och tekniken
2., utök. uppl. : Stockholm : Carlsson : 2006 : 362 s. :
ISBN: 91-7331-015-8 (inb.)
Search the University Library catalogue

Hughes Thomas Parke
Human-built world : how to think about technology and culture
Chicago : University of Chicago Press : 2004 : 223 s. :
ISBN: 0-226-35933-6
Search the University Library catalogue

Nye David E.
Technology matters : questions to live with
Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press : cop. 2006 : xiv, 282 s. :
ISBN: 0-262-14093-4
Search the University Library catalogue

Bladh Mats
”Hughes teori om Stora tekniska system,” Historisk Tidsskrift 126, No 1
Historisk tidskrift : 2006 :
http://www.historisktidskrift.se/fulltext/2006-1/pdf/HT_2006_1_069-90_bladh.pdf

Schwartz Cowan Ruth
“The ‘Industrial Revolution’ in the Home: Household Technology and Social Change in the 20th Century” Technology and Culture 17, No. 1
Technology and Culture : 1976 :
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3103251

Douglas Susan J
”Some Thoughts on the Question "How Do New Things Happen?", Technology and Culture 51, No 2
Technology and Culture : 2010 :
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v051/51.2.douglas.html

Ensmenger Nathan
”The Digital Construction of Technology: Rethinking the History of Computers in Society,” Technology and Culture 53, No 4
Technology and Culture : 2012 :
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v053/53.4.ensmenger.html

“Users as Agents of Technological Change: The Social Construction of the Automobile in the Rural United States” Technology and Culture 37, No. 4
Kline R., Pinch T.
Technology and Culture : 1996 :
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3107097

Latour Bruno
“Where are the Missing Masses: The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts” i Wiebe E. Bijker and John Law, eds., Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change
The MIT Press : 1992 :
http://www.bruno-latour.fr/sites/default/files/50-MISSING-MASSES-GB.pdf

Marinetti Filippo Tommaso
”The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism,”
Le Figaro, Paris : 1909 :
http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/manifesto.html

Marx Leo
“Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept,” Technology and Culture 51, no. 3
Technology and Culture : 2010 :
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v051/51.3.marx.html

“The Nature of Power: Synthesizing the History of Technology and Environmental History,” Technology and Culture 52, No 1
Russell Edmund, Allison James, Finger Thomas, Brown John K., Balogh Brian, Carlson W. Bernard
Technology and Culture : 2011 :
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v052/52.2.russell.html

Strasser Susan
”Making Consumption Conspicuous: Transgressive Topics Go Mainstream,” Technology and Culture 43, No 4
Technology and Culture : 2002 :
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/technology_and_culture/v043/43.4strasser.html

Winner Langdon
“Do Artifacts Have Politics?” i Langdon Winner, The whale and the reactor: a search for limits in an age of high technology
University of Chicago Press : 1986 :

A Conversation with Leo Marx on "Technology: The Emergence of a Hazardous Concept"
Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier : 2012 :
https://vimeo.com/43059923
Mandatory

Blum Andrew
Discover the Physical Side of the Internet
Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier : 2012 :
http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_blum_what_is_the_internet_really.html
Mandatory

Brändén Henrik
"Om Populärvetenskapligt Skrivande
Institutionen för idé- och samhällsstudier :
http://henrikbranden.se/vetenskapsskribent/att-skriva-popularvetenskap/
Mandatory

"The Technological Golem" in Golem at Large: What You Should Know about Technology
Collins Harry, Pinch Trevor
Cambridge University Press : 1998 :
Mandatory

Edgerton David
"From Innovation to Use: Ten Eclectic Theses on the Historiography of Technology"
History and Technology 16, no 2 : 1999 :
Mandatory

Fischer Claude S.
"'Touch Someone': The Telephone Industry Discovers Sociability"
Technology and Culture, No 1 : 1988 :
http://proxy.ub.umu.se:2191/stable/3105226?seq=1
Mandatory

Kranzberg Melvin
"'Technology and History: 'Kranzberg's Laws'"
Technology and Culture 27, No 3 : 1986 :
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3105385
Mandatory

Latour Bruno
"Opening Pandora's Black Box"
Science in Action, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press : 1987 :
Mandatory

Ogle Maureen
"The How of the Historian - Editor's Picks"
Medium :
https://medium.com/editors-picks/f69e08b57b74
Mandatory

Reid
"How Roads Were Not Built for Cars"
The Guardian, April 13 : 2013 :
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2013/apr/16/roads-not-built-for-cars-book
Mandatory

"The Age of Edison: Radical Invention and the Illuminated World"
Brain Pickings : 2013 :
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/02/28/the-age-of-edison/
Mandatory

Williams James
"Understanding the place of humans in nature" in Illusory Boundary: Technology and the Environment"
Charlotte: University of Virginia Press : 2010 :
Mandatory

"The Modern Moloch.
99 % Invisible. :
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-76-the-modern-moloch/
Mandatory