[Air-L] Reading list on technology and society (with a communication twist)

Thu Mar 6 06:02:58 PST 2014

Rich - 

Aileen Fyfe’s “Steam-Powered Knowledge” won the 2013 Edelstein Prize from SHOT - if you’re looking for something at the intersections of steam technology and communication, Fyfe’s book is a good place to start.  Since steam engines became so deeply embedded in many aspects of industrial society (stationary steam engines in factories, transport via railroads & steamboats, engineering activity to prevent boiler explosions, etc), the literature is vast.  Someone already mentioned Schivelbucsh’s “Railway Journey,” which is a brilliant cultural history of a steam-powered technological system.

While I’m at it - you might add Melosi’s “Sanitary City” to your list (if it’s not on there already).  

Andy   

On Mar 6, 2014, at 1:45 AM, riseling <riseling at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear all, 
> 
> Thanks for all the great suggestions for tech. and society books.  There are a lot of "old friends" and "new acquaintances" in the suggestions that have been made. 
> 
> As one would expect from this list,  there are a lot of books/articles on IT and comm. Indeed I noted a need for that bias in my original mail.
> 
> That said,  one theme for which I haven't seen the foundational book is steam technology. Is this a hole awaiting to be filled? 
> 
> Thanks.  
> 
> Rich L.
> 
> <div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Michael Zimmer <zimmerm at uwm.edu> </div><div>Date:05/03/2014  22:41  (GMT+01:00) </div><div>To: AoIR mailing list <air-l at listserv.aoir.org> </div><div>Subject: Re: [Air-L] Reading list on technology and society (with
> 	a	communication twist) </div><div>
> </div>A few more voices to add:
> 
> Baym, Nancy.  "Personal Connections in a Digital Age" 
> 
> Douglas, Susan. "Listening In: Radio And The American Imagination”
> 
> Gitelman, Lisa. "Always Already New: Media, History, and the Data of Culture”
> 
> Marvin, Carolyn. "When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking About Electric Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century”
> 
> Papacharissi, Zizi. "A Private Sphere: Democracy in a Digital Age”
> 
> Turkle, Sherry. "Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet”
> 
> van Dijck, José. "The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media"
> 
> 
> -- 
> Michael Zimmer, PhD
> Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies
> Director, Center for Information Policy Research
> University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
> e: zimmerm at uwm.edu
> w: www.michaelzimmer.org
> 
> On Mar 5, 2014, at 11:36 AM, Lee H. Humphreys <lmh13 at cornell.edu> wrote:
> 
>> Hi Rich,
>> 
>> Among the others that have already been mentioned, here are some old favorites:
>> 
>> Raymond Williams "Television: Technology & Cultural Form" 
>> Josh Meyrowitz "No Sense of Place"
>> Roger Silverstone "Television and Everyday life"
>> Jacques Ellul "The Technological Society"
>> 
>> Of course, there's also Innis' "Bias of Communication"  and McLuhan's "Understanding Media", which can be fun to teach as well. 
>> 
>> I'm also a huge fan of Nick Couldry's book "Media, Society, World.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Lee
>> 
>> Lee Humphreys, PhD
>> Assistant Professor 
>> Dept. of Communication
>> Cornell University
>> 
>> On Mar 5, 2014, at 2:38 AM, Rich Ling wrote:
>> 
>>> Dear all,
>>> 
>>> I am trying to think of a readings list on technology and society. I want
>>> to have a bit of a bias towards communication, but that it not the only
>>> technology. I have put together the following list. The two areas that I
>>> realize I don't have much on is steam technology (is there a book similar
>>> to Eisenstein for steam?) and transport/automobilism.  These are mostly
>>> books. Key articles are also of interest.
>>> 
>>> My current list (starting with the older technologies) is as follows:
>>> 
>>> ·      The Printing press as a agent of change, Eisenstein
>>> 
>>> ·      Shaping the day, Glennie and Thrift
>>> 
>>> ·      Latitude, Sobel
>>> 
>>> ·      The Victorian internet, Standage
>>> 
>>> ·      The Control Revolution, Beniger
>>> 
>>> ·      Technics and civilization, Mumford
>>> 
>>> ·      Electrifying America: Social meanings of a new technology, David Nye
>>> 
>>> ·      When old technologies were new, Marvin
>>> 
>>> ·      The social construction of technical systems, Bijker
>>> 
>>> ·      America Calling, Fischer
>>> 
>>> ·      Crabgrass Frontier, Jackson
>>> 
>>> ·      Virtual communities, Rheingold
>>> 
>>> ·      The rise of the network society, Castells
>>> 
>>> ·      6 Degrees, Watts
>>> 
>>> ·      Taken for grantedness (maybe New Tech, New Ties), Ling
>>> 
>>> ·      Configuring the User as Everybody: Oudshoorn, Rommes, Stinestra
>>> 
>>> ·      Sociology beyond societies, Urry
>>> 
>>> ·      In the Age of the Smart Machine, Zuboff
>>> 
>>> ·      Play between worlds, Taylor
>>> 
>>> ·      Where the action is, Dourish
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Rich L.
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