scholarly journals Compressed Air Technology in Swedish Archaeology: An Example of the Social Construction of Technology in Practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-66
Author(s):  
Åsa Gillberg ◽  
Ola W. Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Compressed Air ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Historical Case Study ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of

In this paper the authors problematize the relation between technological and social aspects of archaeological fieldwork through a historical case study of the introduction and use of compressed air technology in archaeology. They do this by incorporating aspects of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Actor Network Theory (ANT) into the history of archaeology. Apart from archive material, fieldwork reports and interviews with colleagues have been the primary sources. The study shows how technology is negotiated and renegotiated, and how the technical and the social form each other. Finally, the authors draw attention to issues of technological development in the present.

The Lives of Objects

2018 ◽  
pp. 30-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessie Hohmann
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Museum Studies ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Thing Theory ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ontological Categories

This chapter brings into dialogue a number of materially astute theories and methodologies in the humanities and social sciences to consider how we might conceive of the lives of objects in international law. It begins with everyday lives—the way law and objects are woven into daily existences, drawing on ethnographies of the lived experience of law. Second, it considers the social lives of objects and biographical approaches to the lives of things, making reference to anthropological ideas, museum studies, and history, as well as ‘life writing’ and biography. Third, it considers objects as vibrant, agentive actants, drawing on ideas from Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) and science and technology studies (STS), thing theory, and also recognizing the long legal history of objects as agents. The chapter deliberately seeks to unsettle the legal and ontological categories of subject and object, to provoke reflection on how they are constructed and contested in international law.

From Souqs to Emporiums: The Urban Transformation of Abu Dhabi

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 58-69
Author(s):  
Yasser Elsheshtawy
Keyword(s):  
Urban Growth ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Historical Case Study ◽  
Urban Centers ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Trade Center

This paper in its first part aims at contextualizing Abu Dhabi's urban development and understanding the factors that have governed its urban growth through a historical case study approach. Relying on archival records and primary sources five stages of urban growth are identified. Data mining of media archives allows for a first hand account of developments taking place thus grounding the depictions. The second part contextualizes this review through a case study of the Central Market project — also known as Abu Dhabi's World Trade Center. The paper concludes by elaborating on the significance of such a historical analysis as it shifts the discourse away from a focus on the ‘artificiality’ of cities in the Gulf to one that is based on a recognition about the historicity of its urban centers, however recent it may be. Additionally the pertinence of such an analysis for cities worldwide is discussed as well.

scholarly journals Another elderly lady to be knocked down: Heritage discourse and the protest to save the Missions to Seamen building, 1986

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alexander Gordon
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
City Council ◽  
Historical Case Study ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Considerable Difficulty ◽  
Documentary Sources ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
History Of ◽  
Heritage Discourse

<p>Through a specific historical case study, Another Elderly Lady to be Knocked Down applies discourse theory and the Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD) to the context of urban built heritage in Aotearoa New Zealand. Previously, only limited work had been done in this area. By examining an underexplored event this dissertation fills two gaps in present literature: the history of the event itself and identification of the heritage discourses in the country at the time. Examination of these discourses in context also allows conclusions about the use of the AHD in similar studies to be critically examined.  In 1986 the Missions to Seamen building in Wellington, New Zealand, was threatened with demolition by its government owners. In a remarkable display of popular sentiment, individuals, organisations, the Wellington City Council (WCC) and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) worked together to oppose this unpopular decision. This protest was a seminal event in the history of heritage in New Zealand.  This study relies upon documentary sources, especially the archival records of the Historic Places Trust and the State Services Commission, who owned the building, to provide the history of this watershed moment in New Zealand’s preservation movement. The prevalent attitudes of different groups in Wellington are examined through the letters of protest they wrote at the time. When analysed in context, these discourses reveal the ways in which heritage was articulated and constructed.  The course of this dissertation has revealed the difficulty of identifying an AHD in this context. The level of collaboration between ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ heritage perspectives, and the extent to which they shaped each other’s language, creates considerable difficulty in distinguishing between discreet discourses. To better explore the ways that heritage meaning is constructed and articulated, heritage must be recognised as a complex dynamic process.</p>

The Social Embeddedness of Marketing

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-49
Author(s):  
Stefan Schwarzkopf
Keyword(s):  
Historical Case ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
Marketing Activities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
Cultural Intermediaries ◽  
New Consumer

In both premodern and modern capitalist societies, marketing emerged as a key driver behind consumption patterns and as a facilitator of new consumer goods and services. This chapter uses historical case studies to highlight how marketing and consumption practices co-developed over time and in response to socioeconomic and technological changes. The historical evidence shows that marketing activities have never followed a narrow economic and utilitarian calculus; instead, they have always existed within and helped to maintain a wide range of relations between businesses, consumers, cultural intermediaries, and lawmakers. A key tension that runs through the history of marketing and consumption is the coexistence of efforts to control consumer behavior and attempts to provide consumers with the space needed to create entirely new kinds of consumption experiences.

scholarly journals Recovering critique in an age of datafication

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 1135-1151
Author(s):  
Nick Couldry
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Questions

This article starts out from the need for critical work on processes of datafication and their consequences for the constitution of social knowledge and the social world. Current social science work on datafication has been greatly shaped by the theoretical approach of Bruno Latour, as reflected in the work of Actor Network Theory and Science and Technology Studies (ANT/STS). The article asks whether this approach, given its philosophical underpinnings, provides sufficient resources for the critical work that is required in relation to datafication. Drawing on Latour’s own reflections about the flatness of the social, it concludes that it does not, since key questions, in particular about the nature of social order cannot be asked or answered within ANT. In the article’s final section, three approaches from earlier social theory are considered as possible supplements to ANT/STS for a social science serious about addressing the challenges that datafication poses for society.

scholarly journals Beyond quarantine: a history of leprosy in Puerto Rico, 1898-1930s

2003 ◽  
Vol 10 (suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 225-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie H. Levison
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Social History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Political Events ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

From biblical times to the modern period, leprosy has been a disease associated with stigma. This mark of disgrace, physically present in the sufferers' sores and disfigured limbs, and embodied in the identity of a 'leper', has cast leprosy into the shadows of society. This paper draws on primary sources, written in Spanish, to reconstruct the social history of leprosy in Puerto Rico when the United States annexed this island in 1898. The public health policies that developed over the period of 1898 to the 1930s were unique to Puerto Rico because of the interplay between political events, scientific developments and popular concerns. Puerto Rico was influenced by the United States' priorities for public health, and the leprosy control policies that developed were superimposed on vestiges of the colonial Spanish public health system. During the United States' initial occupation, extreme segregation sacrificed the individual rights and liberties of these patients for the benefit of society. The lives of these leprosy sufferers were irrevocably changed as a result.

scholarly journals Reconfiguration, Contestation, and Decline

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1066-1097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin K. Sovacool ◽  
Katherine Lovell ◽  
Marie Blanche Ting
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Innovation Studies ◽  
Unit Of Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Technical Systems ◽  
Temporal Dimensions

Large technical systems (LTS) are integral to modern lifestyles but arduous to analyze. In this paper, we advance a conceptualization of LTS using the notion of mature “phases,” drawing from insights into innovation studies, science and technology studies, political science, the sociology of infrastructure, history of technology, and governance. We begin by defining LTS as a unit of analysis and explaining its conceptual utility and novelty, situating it among other prominent sociotechnical theories. Next, we argue that after LTS have moved through the (overlapping) phases proposed by Thomas Hughes of invention, expansion, growth, momentum, and style, mature LTS undergo the additional (overlapping) phases of reconfiguration, contestation (subject to pressures such as drift and crisis), and eventually stagnation and decline. We illustrate these analytical phases with historical case studies and the conceptual literature, and close by suggesting future research to refine and develop the LTS framework, particularly related to more refined typologies, temporal dimensions, and a broadening of system users. We aim to contribute to theoretical debates about the coevolution of LTS as well as empirical discussions about system-related use, sociotechnical change, and policy-making.

Book Review: The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro, Transport of Delight: The Mythical Conception of Rail Transit in Los Angeles, Rêves parisiens: L'échec de projets de transport public en France au XIXe siècle, Histoire des chemins de fer en France (History of railways in France) II, Le ferrovie in viaggio verso l'Europa: La liberalizzazione delle ferrovie (The railways in travel vis-à-Vis Europe: The liberalisation of the railways), Billy, Alfred, and General Motors: The Story of two unique Men, a Legendary Company and a remarkable Time in American History, Rozwoj koncepcji samochodu osobowego w XX wieku (The evolution of the car in the twentieth century), Das zweite Jahrhundert des Automobils. Technische Innovationen, ökonomische Dynamik und kulturelle Aspekte (The second century of the automobile: Technical innovations, economic dynamics and cultural aspects), Motorcycle, Transportgeschichte im internationalen Vergleich. Europa—China—Naher Osten (International comparison of transport history: Europe—China—Near East), Inventare gli spostamenti: Storia e immagini dell'autostrada Torino—Savona (Inventing movement: History and images of the A6 motorway), Reti mobilità, trasporti: Il sistema italiano tra prospettiva storica e innovazione (Networks of mobility and transport: The Italian system in the perspective of historical and innovation sciences), ‘Votes Count but the Number of Seats decides: A Comparative Historical Case Study of Twentieth Century Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Road Policy’, Εττόμενή στάσή: Χαμένες λεωφόροι. Μια περιδιάβασή στήν κοσμογονία τής αμερικανικής кал τής ευρωπαϊκής μήτρόπολής, Blind Landings: Low-visibility Operations in American Aviation, 1918–1958, Dictatorship of the Air: Aviation Culture and the Fate of Modern Russia, The Rescue of the Third Class on the Titanic: A Revisionist History, Verkehr. Zu einer poetischen Theorie der Moderne (Traffic: Towards a poetic theory of modern times), Gebuchte Gefühle. Tourismus zwischen Verortung und Entgrenzung (Booked feelings: Tourism from localisation to boundlessness)

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-353
Author(s):  
Jan Oliva ◽  
Stefano Maggi ◽  
Bob Post ◽  
Zachary M. Schrag ◽  
Sabine Barles ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Second Century ◽  
General Motors ◽  
Historical Case Study ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Technical Innovations ◽  
Naher Osten

Divided We Stand: Aspects of Archaeology and Information

1983 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Colin Renfrew
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
National Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Social Archaeology ◽  
Growth Area ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
New Archaeology

The role of the New Archaeology of the 1960s is recognized as decisive in the history of archaeology: an awakening from the “long sleep of archaeological theory” from about 1880 to 1960. But at the same time, limitations in the New Archaeology are responsible for corresponding defects in the present scene. The first of these is the lack of clear policy for the handling and especially the publication of data. It is argued that the outstanding defect of Cultural Resource Management, especially in the United States, is the failure to promote a clear policy that all survey work and all excavations should be adequately published. Accompanying this is the inadequate provision for the effective retrieval, at a national level, of the information which does emerge from CRM projects. The responsibility for this lies at the door of the academic archaeologists.The second defect is the failure to recognize that the New Archaeology primarily offered new and interesting problems, not ready solutions. The widespread misconception that processual archaeology has become “normal science” is partly responsible for the lack of steam in the current theoretical scene in the United States. Some alternative approaches are indicated, and it is suggested that cognitive archaeology may, in the 1980s and 1990s, take its place alongside the social archaeology of the past two decades as a significant growth area.

scholarly journals Introduction

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1051-1057
Author(s):  
Michal Biran
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Family Relations ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Exchange ◽  
Hebrew University ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mongol Empire ◽  
High Level

Abstract The Mongol empire (1206–1368) caused massive transformations in the composition and functioning of elites across Eurasia. While the Mongols themselves obviously became the new Eurasian elite, their small number as compared to the huge territory over which they ruled and their initial inexperience in administrating sedentary realms meant that many of their subjects also became part of the new multi-ethnic imperial elite. Mongol preferences, and the high level of mobility—both spatial and social—that accompanied Mongol conquests and rule, dramatically changed the characteristics of elites in both China and the Muslim world: While noble birth could be instrumental in improving one’s status, early surrender to Chinggis Khan; membership in the Mongol imperial guards (keshig); and especially, qualifications—such as excellence in warfare, administration, writing in Mongolian script or astronomy to name but a few—became the main ways to enter elite circles. The present volume translates and analyzes biographies of ten members of this new elite—from princes through generals, administrators, and vassal kings, to scientists and artists; including Mongols, Koreans, Chinese and Muslims—studied by researchers working at the project “Mobility, Empire and Cross Cultural Contacts in Mongol Eurasia” at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The annotated biographies assembled here not only add new primary sources—translated from Chinese, Persian and Arabic—to the study of the Mongol Empire. They also provide important insights into the social history of the period, illuminating issues such as acculturation (of both the Mongols and their subjects), Islamization, family relations, ethnicity, imperial administration, and scientific exchange.

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