Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Innovation

Author:   Helga Nowotny
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Volume:   9
ISBN:  

9781845451172


Pages:   232
Publication Date:   01 February 2006
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
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Cultures of Technology and the Quest for Innovation


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Overview

Underlying the current dynamics of technological developments, their divergence or convergence and the abundance of options, promises and risks they contain, is the quest for innovation, the contributors to this volume argue. The seemingly insatiable demand for novelty coincides with the rise of modern science and the onset of modernity in Western societies. Never before has the Baconian dream been so close to becoming reality: wrapped into a globalizing capitalism that seeks ever expanding markets for new products, artifacts and designs and new processes that lead to gains in efficiency, productivity and profit. However, approaching these developments through a wider historical and cultural perspectives, means to raise questions about the plurality of cultures, the interaction between hardware and software and about the nature of the interfaces where technology meets with economic, social, legal, historical constraints and opportunities. The authors come to the conclusion that inside a seemingly homogenous package and a seemingly universal quest for innovation many differences remain.

Full Product Details

Author:   Helga Nowotny
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Imprint:   Berghahn Books
Volume:   9
Weight:   0.327kg
ISBN:  

9781845451172


ISBN 10:   1845451171
Pages:   232
Publication Date:   01 February 2006
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order   Availability explained
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Quest for Innovation and Cultures of Technology Helga Nowotny PART I: ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INNOVATION Chapter 1. Culture and Innovation Thomas P. Hughes Chapter 2. The Unintended Consequences of Innovation: Change and Community at MIT Rosalind Williams Chapter 3. The Vulnerability of Technological Culture Wiebe E. Bijker PART II: THE GENDER BIAS OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS Chapter 4. Culture of Gender, and Culture of Technology: The Gendering of Things in France's Office Spaces between 1890 and 1930 Delphine Gardey Chapter 5. Suspending Gender? Reflecting on Innovations in Cyberspace Judy Wajcman PART III: PLURALIST HISTORIES OF SCIENCE, INNOVATION, AND WAR Chapter 6. Innovation, Diverse Knowledges, and the Presumed Singularity of Science John V. Pickstone Chapter 7. Scientists on the Battlefield: Cultures and Conflicts Jean-Jacques Salomon PART IV: THE ADOPTION OF INNOVATIONS IN DIFFERENT CULTURAL CONTEXTS Chapter 8. From Prophecies of the Future to Incarnations of the Past: Cultures of Nuclear Technology Patrick Kupper Chapter 9. The Mining Industry in Traditional China: Intraand Intercultural Comparisons Hans Ulrich Vogel Epilogue: Interdisciplinarity and the Innovation Process How to Organize Spaces of Translation, or, the Politics of Innovation Joachim Nettelbeck Contributors Select Bibliography Index

Reviews

- a book that is fundamental to the understanding of technologically developed societies - Innovation matters. Culture matters. And only an understanding of the links between culture and innovation can help us make sense of the world we are building.A * Technology and Culture


...a book that is fundamental to the understanding of technologically developed societies... Innovation matters. Culture matters. And only an understanding of the links between culture and innovation can help us make sense of the world we are building. * Technology and Culture


Author Information

Helga Nowotny, who has a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna and a Ph.D. in sociology from Columbia University, New York, was Professor of Social Studies of Science at ETH Zurich since and Director of Collegium Helveticum. Currently she is Chair of the European Research Advisory Board (EURAB) of the European Commission and Director of the post-doctorate Branco Weiss Fellowship. She was Executive Director of the European Center in Vienna, which she founded, and for seven years Chairperson of the Standing Committee for the Social Sciences of the European Science Foundation.

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