Global Histories of Technology: Actors, Artefacts and Knowledge in Non-Western Contexts

The history of technology still grapples with repercussions of the 'great divergence' debate. This debate posits that innovations and large-scale technological advancements, spearheaded by European industrialisation, created a chasm between Europe and other regions, a gap that still remains to be bridged. This seminar challenges this Eurocentric focus that measures all historical technological developments against Western standards and explores the history of technology in non-Western context by focusing on local actors and their knowledge-making processes. We will employ both a theoretical and an empirical approach, focusing on case studies from the Ottoman Empire, South America, India, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania and Korea from the mid-19th to the 20th century. Throughout the seminar, we will critically engage with themes such as globalisation, invention and innovation, maintenance and repair, "technological dialogue" and "transfer", infrastructures in (post)colonial contexts and the pivotal role of embedded and local knowledge in tailoring technologies to suit specific local needs and conditions. The seminar is geared towards the needs of beginners in history of technology. Anmeldung über ISIS.