In the Making, On the Move: Global Perspectives on Technology Appropriation II

Session Submission Type: Traditional (Closed) Panel

Abstract

Stories about technology are often narrated from the myth of the hero: genius men who, in specific moments of lucidity that reflect the feeling of an era, rescue an invention, an innovation, for the professions. Different models have been proposed to overcome this hero narrative: e.g., changing the point of observation of history, or focusing on controversies, trajectories or agencies that explain the momentum, impact or evolution of an artifact or system. This panel proposes that stories of artefacts and systems are (re)sensitized through the study of technological appropriation, a process that allows us to observe these trajectories from an antiheroic perspective, with an emphasis on the global diversity of user groups, sites, contexts, platforms, infrastructures involved in their access, learning, incorporation and transformation of technologies in use. The rewriting and restructuring of a given technology can be seen from a paradigm of mobilities (Urry et al.), which allows us to open our accounts to heterodox approaches in the histories of technologies (postcolonial, collectivist, feminist, among others). This panel hopes to be a space for dialogue and debate about stories of technological appropriation. We're looking for comparative works, explicitly global, either on dynamics or extended cases on the cultural processes of a technology in a particular community — e.g., Capable Share Studies on the appropriation in multiple locations that represent the different stages of the evolution of a certain technology.

Sub Unit

• 4S Annual Meeting

Chair

• Martin Andrés Perez Comisso, SFIS - Arizona State University

Individual Presentations

• The International Politics of Dramatically Dangerous Technologies - Ole Waever, University of Copenhagen

• Un caso de transición socio-técnica: la instalación de un régimen de saneamiento en Santiago de Chile, a inicios del siglo XX - Miguel Muñoz, Instituto de Estudios Avanzados - Usach

• The Care of the World: Maintenance Practices in the Pan-African e-Network - Vincent Duclos, Drexel University Center for Science, Technology & Society

• Exporting Engineering for Justice - Marie Stettler Kleine, Virginia Tech