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Technology and Culture 46.1 (2005) 149-163



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The Amsterdam Meeting, 8-10 October 2004

The forty-fifth meeting of the Society for the History of Technology took place at the Renaissance Amsterdam Hotel in Amsterdam, 8-10 October 2004. Members of the program committee were Ruth Oldenziel (chair), Dan Holbrook, Eda Kranakis, Irene Anastasiadou, and Frank Schipper. Local arrangements were made by Johan Schot (chair), Donna Mehos, Lidwien Hollanders, Jan Korsten, Roeslan Leontjevas, and Frank Schipper. Generous support was provided by: ABN-AMRO; the Department of Technology Management at Eindhoven University of Technology; the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Dutch Association of Insurers; the Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, Eindhoven University of Technology; the N. W. Posthumus Institute (the Dutch national research school for social and economic history); the Royal Institute of Engineers; the Foundation for the History of Technology in the Netherlands; and the International School for Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Amsterdam.

Sessions

Opening Plenary

"What Difference Does the History of Technology Make? Taking Low Things Seriously in an Age of High Theory," David Edgerton, Imperial College, London

The Technopolitics of Knowledge and Secrecy in South Africa

Organizers: Gabrielle Hecht, University of Michigan, and Keith Breckenridge, University of KwaZulu-Natal

Chair: Helen Tilley, Princeton University

Commentator: Keith Shear, University of Birmingham

Papers: "Camouflaging Geopolitics under Apartheid," Paul Edwards and Gabrielle Hecht, University of Michigan; "Verwoerd's Bureau of Proof: Total Information in the Making of Apartheid," Keith Breckenridge; "The [End Page 149] Record, the Archive and Electronic Technologies in South Africa," Verne Harris, University of Witwatersrand

A Path to Industrialisation? The Atlantic Economy, Circulation of Knowledge, and Early Modern Industry, 1500-1850

Organizer: Klaus Weber, Rothschild Archive, London, and Alexander Engel, Georg-August-Universität, Göttingen

Chair: Renate Pieper, Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz

Commentator: Ulrich Pfister, Universität Münster

Papers: "Silver, Slave Trade, Textile Markets, and Central European Proto-Industry, 1680-1850," Klaus Weber; "Invited Strangers: Technology Emergence and Transfer in Europe and the Americas, 1500-1750," Elva Kathleen Lyon, Rutgers University; "Embedding Transatlantic Markets in Systems of Knowledge and Technology: The Case of Dyestuffs," Alexander Engel

Cold War Politics of the Kitchen

Organizer and commentator: Karin Zachmann, Technical University Munich

Chair: Bruce Pietrykowski, University of Michigan

Papers: "Peaceful Competition in the Kitchen: The Soviet Encounter with the American Dream," S. E. Reid, University of Sheffield; "The American 'Fat Kitchen' in Europe: Cold War, Domestic Modernity, and the Marshall Plan," Greg Castillo, University of Miami; "American Kitchens in Italian cucine: U.S. Influence and the Transformation of Italy's Domestic Space during the 1950s," Paolo Scrivano, University of Toronto

Corridors of Modernization

Organizer and commentator: Paul R. Josephson, Colby College

Chair: Bruce Seely, Michigan Technological University

Papers: "National Identification and the Imperial Railway Administration of Elsaß Lothringen, 1871-1918," Martijn Wit, University of Twente; "Soviet Roads in the Interwar Period: Corridors of Modernization, Legitimacy and Control," Tracy Nichols Busch, U.S. Federal Highway Administration; "Transnational Infrastructures and the Rise of Contemporary Europe," Johan Schot and Erik van der Vleuten, Technical University Eindhoven

Hidden from View: Technology for Functional Bodies

Organizer: Shelley P. McKellar, University of Western Ontario

Chair: Mikael Hård, Technical University Darmstadt [End Page 150]

Commentator: Olga Amsterdamska, University of Amsterdam

Papers: "'The Conquest of the Deep': Diving between Engineering, Science, and Adventure," Alexander von Lünen, Technical University Darmstadt; "Hidden Dangers: The Case of the Nuclear-Powered Artificial Heart," Shelley P. McKellar; "From Backpacks to Pockets: Insulin Pumps and Diabetic Care," Kristen Gardner, University of Texas at San Antonio

Tunnel Visions

Chair: Miriam Levin, Case Western Reserve University

Commentator: Rosalind Williams, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Papers: "Tunnel Visions and Mountain Sickness: The Construction of a Road Tunnel and Its Cultural Meaning in Mid-Nineteenth-Century France," Onne Bieringa, University of Twente; "'Last Stop on the Metro: Aswan,'" Elizabeth Bishop, University of Texas; "Studying Landscapes of National Prowess," Judith Schueler, Technical University Eindhoven

Conduits of Urban Expansion

Chair: Bernard Barraqué, E´cole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées

Commentator...

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