History of Technology

Project status
Funded by
Project type
The Risk Industry. Evidence for safety as a new field of research and enterprise (1960s to 1980s) This project investigates changing evidence practices for technical safety in Germany during a key period from the 1950s to the 1980s. Whereas the first project phase focused mainly on the two technological domains of nuclear and automotive technology, the second phase will concentrate on the emergence of what we call the risk industry.
Project leader(s)
Prof. Dr. Karin Zachmann, Dr. Stefan Esselborn
Period
01.08.2020 – 01.08.2023
past
Funding institution
DFG
DFG dfg
Project type
third-party-funded-project
Themes
technical safety, risk, nuclear power, automobile, FRG, GDR
Skills in Motion. On the Practice of Evaluating and Recognising Foreign Professional Qualifications from the 1960s to the Present Day Since the middle of the 20th century, population movements in the western world have increasingly been dictated and controlled by the individual skills of (potential) migrants rather than their national origins. Skills have not only been considered a condition for entering the country, but also for being able to work in adequate employment positions on the labor market.
Project leader(s)
Olga Sparschuh
Project type
postdoc-projekt-post-doc-project
Themes
Migration, globability, politics of measurement
The Language of Biofacts. Semantics and Materiality of High-Tech Cultivated Plants Molecular biotechnology has given rise to a continuously increasing amount of objects that, like the cloned sheep and the genetically modified tomato, speak a language whose semantics undermine the traditional distinction between inanimate technology and living nature. This has triggered severe and sometimes persistent controversies, e.g. with regard to patent registration and release of genetically modified organisms. The view that technical objects are manufactured by man but living objects emerge from natural growth processes, and both object groups are clearly defined, obviously has lost its epistemological and real-life validity. Technical philosophy has taken account of this and developed the terms Biofact (Nicole C. Karafyllis) and Biotic Artefact (Keekok Lee).
Project leader(s)
Prof. Dr. Karin Zachmann
Period
01.03.2015 - 31.08.2017
past
Funding institution
BMBF
BMBF bmbf
Project type
consortium-project
Gestures and Diagrams in Visual-Spatial Communication: Methodological Tools and Applications in Mathematics and Logic DFG Project “Gestures and Diagrams in Visual-Spatial Communication” (ViCom: DFG Priority Programme 2329), in cooperation with PD Dr. Jens Lemanski, Universität Münster
Project leader(s)
Dr. Andrea Reichenberger & PD Dr. Jens Lemanski
Period
2022 - 2025
future
Funding institution
Universität Münster
Universität Münster universitt-mnster
Women in Focus: Rethinking the History and Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics Junior Research Group “Women in Focus: Rethinking the History and Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics”, Professorinnenprogramm des Bundes und der Länder III
Project leader(s)
Dr. Andrea Reichenberger
Period
2021 - 2024
past
Funding institution
Universität Siegen; Professorinnenprogramm des Bundes und der Länder III
Universität Siegen; Professorinnenprogramm des Bundes und der Länder III universitt-siegen-professorinnenprogramm-des-bundes-und-der-lnder-iii
Practicing Evidence – Evidencing Practice Evidence in Science, Medicine, Technology and Society. DFG Research Unit 2448 https://www.evidenzpraktiken-dfg.tum.de/en/
Project leader(s)
Prof. Dr. Karin Zachmann
Period
13.12.2016 – 30.09.2023
past
Funding institution
DFG
DFG dfg
Project type
verbundprojekt-consortium-project
“How Safe Is Safe Enough?” Practices of Evidence for Technical Safety in Times of Societal Uncertainty The project aims to analyze practices of evidence concerning technical safety in both German states between the 1950s and the 1980s, using two specific technological fields – automobiles and nuclear power – as case studies.
Project leader(s)
Prof. Dr. Karin Zachmann, Dr. Stefan Esselborn
Period
01.04.2017 – 31.03.2020
past
Funding institution
DFG
DFG dfg
Project type
postdoc-projekt-post-doc-project
Themes
technical safety, risk, nuclear power, automobile, FRG, GDR
A Permanent Revolution. Singapore as a Logistics City, 1848-1942 Port facilities, stockyards, loading docks, railroad tracks, power grids – functional infrastructures form basic units of both modern cities and logistics. In this relationship, logistics is a conditioning force.
Project leader(s)
Dr. Felix Mauch
Period
01.01.2016 – 31.12.2022
past
Funding institution
TUM
TUM tum
Project type
postdoc-projekt-post-doc-project
Themes
Logistische Infrastrukturen, Architekturen und Medien, technische Landschaften, Stadt- und Umweltgeschichte, Technikgeschichten Südostasiens
Of Flies and Men: Global Insect Vector Control Regimes, 1960s-1980s This study takes as its particular subject of inquiry the circulation of knowledge between malaria and river blindness campaigns and hence the various attempts to control anopheles and black flies by techniques such as large-scale spraying of pesticides, water management and bush clearing. Local contingencies as well as the implementation of environmental protection measures gradually re-casted medical development policies.
Project leader(s)
Dr. Sarah Ehlers
Period
past
Funding institution
TUM
TUM tum
Project type
postdoc-projekt-post-doc-project
Themes
Insect vectors, environmental intervention, disease control, globality
Planning for Persistent Environmental Contamination: Public Health, Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, and Technoscience in Canada Mein laufendes Forschungsprojekt mit dem Titel “Planning for Persistent Environmental Contamination: Public Health, Indigenous Traditional Knowledge, and Technoscience in Canada” erforscht von Citizen-Science-Projekten verwendete Evidenzpraktiken für Umweltbelastung im Kontext des kanadischen Siedler-Kolonialismus, in dem Evidenzpraktiken dieser Art grundsätzlich umstritten sind.
Project leader(s)
Sarah Blacker
Period
past
Funding institution
TUM
TUM tum
Project type
postdoc-projekt-post-doc-project
Themes
Health-environment interactions, Environmental Justice, evidence practices, citizen science, politics of measurement, toxicology, relational ontologies, Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)