This project will examine two aspects of the history of the concept of technology, primarily in the United States. The first aspect concerns the rise of a definition of technology as applied science from the interwar years into the 1950s. This idea of technology as applied science became combined with the definition of technology as the procedures, skills and equipment of modern industrial society, a definition shaped by the German concept of Technik. The second aspect of this project focuses on the emergence of a discourse about technology linked to the Cold War. This discourse was closely connected the questions of government policy, in particular the competition for prestige with the Soviet Union. But at the same time, a critical discourse about technology emerged during the Cold War, in part due to the influence of European critiques of technology. This critical side of the Cold-War discourse of technology helped set these intellectual stages for more sustained questioning of technology in the 1960s. In both these parts of the project, the PI will show how changes in the meanings of technology arose from specific debates within disciplines and from broader trends within American culture.

Intellectual Merit This project builds on the PI's recent work, which describes the influence of the German discourse of Technik on the American meanings of technology before World War II. When American social scientists encountered the concept of Technik in German social theory, they absorbed this concept into the pre-existing term technology, thereby transforming its meanings. Yet the original meaning of technology as the science of the arts persisted, and was in turn transformed into the idea of technology as applied science. These two incompatible meanings of the term, technology as Technik and technology as applied science, coexisted in an awkward hybrid that contributed to conceptual confusion over the meanings of technology.

Broader Impact Clarifying this history will be of significance to more than just specialists; it will also contribute to the public understanding of science and technology. This history of the term technology helps explain some of the persistent confusion even among educated members of the public about the nature of technology and its relationship to science. By creating a simple web page summarizing the results of this project, the PI will make these results widely available to a broader public.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
0646788
Program Officer
Frederick M Kronz
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2007-08-01
Budget End
2008-07-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
$31,614
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Wisconsin Madison
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Madison
State
WI
Country
United States
Zip Code
53715