TECHNOLOGY IN THE MODERN WORLD (HPS202)

Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, U of T

2021 -

What is technology? What role does it play in history? Does technology drive historical change, or is it reflective of broader social, political, and cultural evolutions? These are the questions that will guide our exploration of technology and society over the last 250 years. From industrialization to the digitization of the self, we will consider how technologies shape social relations; how social relations such as class and gender shape the use of technologies; cultural responses to new technologies, from the steam locomotive to smartphones; and the ecological consequences of world-transforming technologies such as nuclear power. Our geographical focus will be not just Europe and North America (i.e. the euro-Atlantic “West”), but also in other areas while accounting for the roles of imperial expansions as driving forces in the history of technology in the modern era.

Beginning with the sugar trade and industrialization, we will examine mechanization and the transformation of nature across the globe; consider the cultural associations of technology and modernity; examine the production of gender, race, and class in and around technologies of everyday life; analyze the paradoxes of war, technology, and peace during the nuclear age; and consider what it means to live in a digital world and the attention economy. Above all, this is a course about technology in social, political, cultural, and historical context.