CfP: Technology and Power
The International Committee for the History of Technology’s 46th Symposium in Katowice, Poland, 22 – 27 July 2019
Deadline for proposals is Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Social
theorists from Max Weber to Jürgen Habermas have argued that power
relations are among the defining characteristics of every society, along
with culture and economic relations. The main theme of this conference,
Technology and Power, seeks to interrogate the various roles
technologies have played in the development of power relations in the
past, in different parts of the world. Political power (local, state,
and inter-state) is the most obvious of these, but relations of gender,
sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, labour, age, and so on, also include
elements of power. Technologies have instrumental, mediating,
undermining, reinforcing, and constructive roles in all of these
relations. Some technologies have been used by elites, others have
served the relatively powerless. Think of weapons as means of state
power, but also as instruments of revolution; the printed word as a
vehicle of state and church propaganda, but also as a disrupter of all
kinds of authority; contraceptive devices and pills that have changed
relations between the sexes and in families. Power is usually contested,
and technologies often change the chances of those involved in these
conflicts.
The
recent interest in transnational history has extended the range of
these topics and revealed their interconnectedness. Technological change
is disrespectful of national borders: technical knowledge and
technicians travel, and new technologies of communication and transport
transform balances of trade and power on a worldwide scale. We have only
begun to explore these global dimensions, and the symposium will offer
the opportunity to push this project forward.
A
broad but non-exhaustive list of possible topics for paper
presentations follows. Proposals and presentations on a wide spectrum of
topics related to the general theme are very much encouraged. Proposals
outside the main theme will also be considered.
1. Technology and the State
Engineers and architects in power
- forms of technocracy across the world and in different times
- case studies of technocrats
-
large technocratic projects (think of TVA or the post WWII dam building
projects in the third world, and similar projects in earlier times)
The State and the economy, from mercantilism to the present
- energy politics
- technical education
- stimulating small companies, from crafts to modern start-ups
- military technology and the rise of the modern nation-state
- technology-driven military revolutions
- war and technological change
- military and technological aspects of unconventional warfare
- military technology in non-military settings
- military-industrial (-academic) complexes (not only US)
Technical forms of government
- technologies of surveillance (as in border control, security services, public health)
- environmental governance
- managing populations by means of statistics or eugenics
Technology and international relations
2. Design as politics
Urban planning across the world: the design of city life, transit infrastructures, ecological urbanism
Scripting the everyday: attempts to shape life through the design of homes, offices and products for everyday use
Design fantasies: technological utopias and dystopias
Design and political ideology, from totalitarianism to neoliberalism; design activism (as in DIY and the ‘maker movement’)
3. Power and the body
The rise of Big Pharma
Reproductive technology, gender and family relations
Self-monitoring technologies, the ‘quantified self’
Resisting and rejecting modern medical interventions; alternative and non-western health care practices
4. Maintaining, repairing, and appropriating technologies
Repair and maintenance of large technological systems
Everyday cultures of maintenance and repair in developed and developing nations
Sites of repair: factories, workshops, maker-labs, and homes
Hacking and modifying digital and material things
Proposal Guidelines
The
symposium covers all periods and all areas of the globe. In keeping
with a cherished tradition of the field, the meeting is open to scholars
from all disciplines and backgrounds.
The conference language is English.
We especially encourage graduate students to submit proposals and to participate in the symposium.
INDIVIDUAL
PAPER proposals must include: (1) a 300-word (maximum) abstract; and
(2) a one-page (maximum) CV. Abstracts should include the author’s name
and email address, a short descriptive title, three to five key words, a
concise statement of the thesis, a brief discussion of the sources, and
a summary of the major conclusions. If you are submitting a paper
proposal dealing with a particular subtheme in this CfP, please indicate
this in your proposal. In preparing your paper, remember that
presentations are not full-length articles. You will have no more than
20 minutes to speak, which is roughly equivalent to 8 double-spaced
typed pages. For more suggestions about preparing your conference
presentation, please consult the guidelines at the conference website.
Contributors are encouraged to submit full-length versions of their
papers after the conference for consideration by ICOHTEC’s peer-reviewed
journal ICON.
PANEL
proposals must include (1) an abstract of the panel (300 words
maximum), listing the proposed papers and a session chairperson; (2)
abstracts for each paper (300
words
maximum); (3) a one-page CV (maximum) for each contributor and
chairperson. Panels should consist of three or four speakers. Several
panels may be organized on one topic. We encourage the creation of
panels which examine technology and power relations in different parts
of the world, enabling international comparisons, and contributing to an
emerging transnational historiography. We welcome especially
contributions from beyond Europe and the United States, which so far
have been less fully covered by historians of technology.
The programme committee reserves the right to relocate papers to different themes and add papers to panels.
POSTER
proposals must include (1) a 300-word (maximum) abstract; and (2) a
one-page CV. Abstracts should include the author’s name and email
address, a short descriptive title,
a
concise statement of the thesis, a brief discussion of the sources, and
a summary of the major conclusions. Please indicate which of the
symposium subthemes your poster refers to (if applicable).
The
programme committee also encourages submission of ALTERNATIVE FORMATS
for sessions: round tables, the presentation of an important book or
film, etcetera.
Members of ICOHTEC pay a reduced fee.
Proposal submissions
The final deadline for all submissions is Tuesday 15 January 2019.
Please check updated instructions on submissions at our website: http://www.icohtec.org/.
Please submit your session, individual paper, or poster, online: http://www.icohtec.org/annual-meeting/cfp-system/2019-katowice/
The
submission form should guide you through the submission process, but if
you need further explanation, you can find it in the pdf document
‘Technical instructions’, which you can download from the opening page
of the submission form.
If
you want to submit a proposal for a session in another format, please
contact the chair of the Program Committee, Dick van Lente, at vanlente@eshcc.eur.nl.
Contact Info: http://www.icohtec.org/w-annual-meeting/katowice-2019/