Technology and the Texture of Modernity

This chapter introduces networks, contexts/ecologies, and innovations as the three main concepts that make technology pivotal for constructing contemporary societies, as well as many ideas of modernity. Technologies are not mere artifacts, but also sociotechnical networks made by distinct artifacts composed, in turn, by different elements belonging to various technical networks. Digitalization has exagerated and changed this process, which was present from the very beginning of modern technological history. Any multiple assemblage looks for its continuous existence in two different fields: at the mere technical level, on standardization and classification of elements and activities; and at a human and social level, on uses, habits, conventions, and practices.

Techniques for Thin-Walled Element Milling with Respect to Minimising Post-Machining Deformations

The paper examines the impact of selected machining techniques and the semi-finished product technological history on deformations of thin-walled elements made of EN AW-2024 T351 aluminium alloy after milling. The following techniques have been implemented: High Performance Cutting, High Speed Cutting, conventional finishing (CF) and combinations of these techniques. As for the semi-finished product technological history, the rolling direction has been analysed. It has been assumed that it can be relevant in relation to the cutting tool feed direction and, in consequence, exert considerable impact on the stress, as well as deformation following machining. The interest in this issue proceeds from significant challenges faced by the industry, particularly in the aerospace sector. The analysis of results obtained has shown that milling in the direction perpendicular to the rolling direction results in larger deformations than milling in the parallel direction. Additionally, it has been revealed that applying a correctly selected machining technique makes it possible to minimise post-machining deformations of thin-walled elements.

Historical Overview of Qualitative Research in the Social Sciences

Qualitative research does not represent a monolithic, agreed-on approach to research but is a vibrant and contested field with many contradictions and different perspectives. To respect the multivoicedness of qualitative research, this chapter will approach its history in the plural—as a variety of histories. The chapter will work polyvocally and focus on six histories of qualitative research, which are sometimes overlapping, sometimes in conflict, and sometimes even incommensurable. They can be considered articulations of different discourses about the history of the field, which compete for researchers’ attention. The six histories are: (a) the conceptual history of qualitative research, (b) the internal history of qualitative research, (c) the marginalizing history of qualitative research, (d) the repressed history of qualitative research, (e) the social history of qualitative research, and (f) the technological history of qualitative research.

Hearing Perfection

This chapter examines the formation of a particular rhetoric and constellation of values surrounding the violin through the lens of comparative tests between new and old violins. Since the nineteenth century, new violins have consistently won out over old ones. This is part of an ongoing process of mutual calibration between old and new violins: the old violins are updated to meet new playing needs; new violins are made as copies of older instruments. The continual blurring of distinctions between new and old produces what this chapter calls mendacious technology: an instrument that lies about its own historicity. Mendacious technology performs a productive, even essential, role within musical history. The violin itself has undergone many significant, though underplayed, technological alterations, but what has endured is the very notion that the instrument has endured. The musical canon—and meaningful access to it—depends on this careful obfuscating of technological history.