History of Technology Volume 28
Special Issue: By whose standards? Standardization, stability and uniformity in the history of information and electrical technologies
1st Edition
Published on 31. March 2009
192 pages
978-1-4411-4121-7 (ISBN)
Description
Technical standards have received increasing attention in recent years from historians of science and technology, management theorists and economists. Often, inquiry focuses on the emergence of stability, technical closure and culturally uniform modernity. Yet current literature also emphasizes the durability of localism, heterogeneity and user choice. This collection investigates the apparent tension between these trends using case studies from across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The History of Technology addresses tensions between material standards and process standards, explores the distinction between specifying standards and achieving convergence towards them, and examines some of the discontents generated by the reach of standards into 'everyday life'.
Includes the Special Issue "By whose standards? Standardization, stability and uniformity in the history of information and electrical technologies"
The History of Technology addresses tensions between material standards and process standards, explores the distinction between specifying standards and achieving convergence towards them, and examines some of the discontents generated by the reach of standards into 'everyday life'.
Includes the Special Issue "By whose standards? Standardization, stability and uniformity in the history of information and electrical technologies"
Reviews / Votes
Editors Graeme Gooday and James Sumner have selected a diverse set of articles ...[the book] adds value by challenging how we understand standardization in the realm of technology and industry. It should be read by all those interested in processes of standardization.More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
15
ISBN-13
978-1-4411-4121-7 (9781441141217)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Ian Inkster
History of Technology Volume 28
Special Issue: By Whose Standards? Standardization, Stability and Uniformity in the History of Information and Electr
Book
03/2009
Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
€262.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Ian Inkster is Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK.
Content
Introduction: does standardization make things standard?
James Sumner and Graeme Gooday
Morality, locality and 'standardization' in the work of British consulting electrical engineers, 1880-1914
Efstathios Arapostathis
Technology, vision and practice: rethinking closure in the history of artificial illumination
Chris Otter
Standardization across the boundaries of the Bell System, 1920-1938
Andrew L. Russell
Battery birds, 'stimulighting' and 'twilighting': the ecology of standardized poultry technology
Karen Sayer
Basicode: co-producing a microcomputer Esperanto
Frank Veraart
Standards and compatibility: the rise of the PC platform
James Sumner
IPv6: a history of the next-generation Internet
Laura DeNardis
James Sumner and Graeme Gooday
Morality, locality and 'standardization' in the work of British consulting electrical engineers, 1880-1914
Efstathios Arapostathis
Technology, vision and practice: rethinking closure in the history of artificial illumination
Chris Otter
Standardization across the boundaries of the Bell System, 1920-1938
Andrew L. Russell
Battery birds, 'stimulighting' and 'twilighting': the ecology of standardized poultry technology
Karen Sayer
Basicode: co-producing a microcomputer Esperanto
Frank Veraart
Standards and compatibility: the rise of the PC platform
James Sumner
IPv6: a history of the next-generation Internet
Laura DeNardis
