CfP: Postcolonial Histories of LTS in Africa - SHOT 2021
To whom it interest:
AnnualMeeting of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT)New Orleans, Louisiana18-21 November, 2021 Session Title: Beyond the Deficiency Narrative: PostcolonialHistories of LTS in Sub-Saharan Africa. Description In the 1960s and 1970s, technology was seen as anavenue, through which Africa could beequal among ‘gods’, a platform to build hubris narrative. The nations were stillnewly independent full of euphoria and vigour to denounce the long colonial underdevelopmentepisode. On one hand, the new independent nations had a missionto disprove the former colonial powers that they were capable of unbridling underdevelopmentby themselves. On the other hand, they had a mission of showing andmobilizing their masses towards a freer and a people-centred development. This two-prongedmission would utilize technology, especially the large technical systems (LTS), asthe means to the end. Urban environments served as platforms of flaunting andexploiting new technologies, especially roads, water, sanitation and power network.Despite the introduction or expansion of such networks, colonial deficiency persistedthrough the post colony. As observed by Akallah and Hård (2020), the perpetuationof the kind of ‘deficiency narratives’ in LTS and Urban Studies derive frominadequate theorisation and biased methodologies. Overlooking the daily use of technologyand various groups’ experience of their material surroundings, established storylines end up as unilateral accounts that fail to provide insight into the complexityof the urban landscape (ibid). In this session, we seek to explore the cross-sectionalstories of the early postcolonial LTS projects in Sub-Saharan Africa from the vantagepoint of history of technology and locate the different trajectories thatinform theprocesses of appropriation. How does space, national developmental philosophiesandpolitical praxis shape adoption and production of technical knowledge? In attemptingto answer such questions, we seek to appreciate the stories themselves and theagency of the local people. We seek to develop new avenues of historiographicalinterpretationson technology from the South. This contributes greatly to the internationalizationof History of Technology. As such we invite session abstracts of not more than 300 words of thefollowing themes;- Power generation and distribution - Roadand drainage building - Water andsanitation systems -Mobility in urban areas - ColdWar Politics and LTS -Appropriation of technological knowledge Kindly submit abstracts together with short biosand institutional affiliations to the conveners Dr. J. Akallah atayumbajetty@yahoo.com based at Maseno University, Kenya and F. Edward atf38edward@yahoo.co.uk based at University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Thedeadline for submission is April 6, 2021. Regards,
Frank Edward, M.A. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8510-7082
View my publications here.
CallSend SMSAdd to SkypeYou'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype
EASST's Eurograd mailing list Eurograd (at) lists.easst.net Unsubscribe or edit subscription options: http://lists.easst.net/listinfo.cgi/eurograd-easst.net
Meet us via https://twitter.com/STSeasst
Report abuses of this list to Eurograd-owner@lists.easst.net
EASST-Eurograd
30 recent messages
- 01/07/2025 Postdoctoral researcher on Aquatic STS (University of Helsinki)
- 01/07/2025 Visiting research fellowships, Tema Technology and Social Change, Linköping University
- 01/07/2025 The Nuclear-Water Nexus: new edited volume with 25 contributors!
- 30/06/2025 TATuP 34/2 (2025) "Beyond short termism" & CfA "Exploring technologies through imaginary worlds"
- 27/06/2025 Full professor in Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna, deadline 17 September 2025
- 27/06/2025 CfA Funding for Research Sabbaticals (Fellowships) and Working Groups
- 25/06/2025 Reminder: June 27 Community Call: “Mapping Water Care Initiatives in the Americas”
- 25/06/2025 History of the Philosophy of Technology Resource
- 24/06/2025 AAA – Anthropologie & développemen=?utf-8?q?t =E2=80=93 Les formes contemporaines de l=E2=80=99argent=5FCont?= emporary forms of money.
- 23/06/2025 CfP: FOR 2026 - The Future of Open Research
- 20/06/2025 New book on global carcinogen regulation
- 19/06/2025 Realities of Autonomous Weapons / OA book from BUP / Hybrid book release with editors & L.Suchman
- 19/06/2025 Tenure Track positions open in Chile, deadline 07.07
- 19/06/2025 Advertising STS Winter School
- 17/06/2025 Instructions for authors for JAIS Special Issue on Contemporary Innovation in Information Infrastructures.
- 17/06/2025 Call for participation: Preparing Wishes for the Afterlife - Thinking with Death and Legacy in Artistic Practice
- 13/06/2025 Call for a special issue in Futures
- 13/06/2025 Postdoc Position in Sociology of Innovation & Digitalization (JKU Linz)
- 12/06/2025 CfP Workshop "AI x Crisis: Tracing New Directions Beyond Deployment and Use" | Aarhus Conference 2025 (Extended Deadline)
- 12/06/2025 Athena is offering 2 postdocs on mission-oriented innovation for food and health system transitions
- 11/06/2025 [mat-num] June 18 - Mia Bennett, “=?windows-1252?q?Polar frontiers=2C polar orbits=3A The spluttering launch ?= of Arctic commercial spaceports”
- 10/06/2025 CFP: Promises and Conflicts in the Infrastructuring of Agricultural Digitalization
- 10/06/2025 Talk: Aaron Perzanowski "The Law and Policy of Repair" (Maintenance & Philosophy SIG, Thursday June 12th 2025, 18-1915 UTC+1)
- 10/06/2025 FW: Symposium University of Liverpool 18 June 2025: How might be feel problems differently? (Re)thinking the case study methodology in STS
- 09/06/2025 Protocols for Knowing Microbes Otherwise =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=93 Art and practice session at Nordic STS =28Stockholm=2C ?= 11-13 June)
- 09/06/2025 Fully funded 3 y Postdoctoral Researcher =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=9CBuddhist Ethics for a Systemic Answer to the Attention E?= conomy”
- 06/06/2025 Call for Abstracts - ARS'25 (Naples, Italy) - Session on "Technoscientific networks”
- 06/06/2025 Free webinar on anti-microbial resistance June 10th
- 06/06/2025 Getting ready to do fieldwork? Field School in Ethnographic Research Methods
- 06/06/2025 Public Keynote Invitation (European Network for Digital Anthropology)