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

Ben Morton benallenmorton at gmail.com
Thu Mar 6 18:24:50 PST 2014


For technology and society readings related to transportation, you should
definitely take a look at Jeremy Packer's Mobility Without Mayhem: Safety,
Cars, and Citizenship<http://books.google.com/books/about/Mobility_without_Mayhem.html?id=p8TA1d6rswgC>(2008)


-Ben Morton
University of Iowa


On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 8:02 AM, Andrew Russell <arussell at stevens.edu> wrote:

> 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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> >>
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> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Andrew L. Russell, Ph.D.
> Director, Program in Science & Technology Studies
> Assistant Professor, History
> College of Arts & Letters
> Stevens Institute of Technology
> Hoboken, New Jersey 07030
>
> t. 201-216-5400 || f. 201-216-8245
> arussell at stevens.edu || @RussellProf
> http://www.stevens.edu/cal/sts || http://www.arussell.org
>
> Open Standards and the Digital Age: History, Ideology, and Networks
> (available for pre-order from Cambridge University Press and Amazon.com)
>
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