EH.N: CfP: Globalization revisited: World-embracing technologies in a historical perspective

[Karsten Uhl]

Call for Papers

Technologies of Globalization
Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, October 30-31, 2008
(deadline for proposals: April, 15th, 2008)

Presently (re-)shaping social life as well as economics and science, 
the effects of globalization are in their turn - and in manifold ways 
- related to and in fact highly dependent on technology. The first 
International Conference of the DFG-Research Group "Topologies of 
Technology" seeks to explore in greater detail and from a 
delibarately interdisciplinary angle the role(s) and function(s) of 
world-embracing information and communication technologies, transport 
and computing facilities in the global age. In one of the 
conference's five streams, space will be given to historical and 
literary studies-related considerations aiming at the disclosure of 
precursors of technology-enhanced globalizing tendencies:

Globalization revisited: World-embracing technologies in a historical 
perspective

The stream or session seeks to cast light on narratives and 
historical developments that pre-figure what is now buzz worded 
globalization: the factual emergence and ultimate rise of 
world-embracing, transnational tendencies in the fields of trade and 
commerce, communication and labor organization, and their effects on 
local or regional society formations in the late 20th and early 21st 
century. Numerous socio- and economic-historical approaches have in 
the last few years tackled the precursors of today's phenomenon of 
globalization; initiatives of this kind include the implementation of 
Global History M.A. degree courses and extensive research activities.

Our focus will more specifically be on the role and function (as well 
as description and appropriation) of technology, ranging from the 
construction of a finally world-embracing telegraphic network in the 
early years of the 20th century and the rise of cargo ships and 
standardized container as well as harbor equipments beginning in the 
mid-1950s to fictional representations predicting the arrival of a 
supra-national world society and economy based on gadgets like 
pneumatic tubes: an early version of the worldwide web that plays a 
pre-eminent role in Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward of 1887.

We invite contributions from historians of technology, researchers of 
business history or from literary and cultural studies that 
effectively and innovatively investigate past developments of this 
kind by picking up the thesis of a globalization "before the letter" 
and grafting these more particularly on the respective historical 
state of the arts in technological progress. This explicitly includes 
comparative approaches - e.g., how does the pre-history of 
globalization materialize in economically and politically different 
systems such as capitalism as opposed to communist regimes? - as well 
as investigations organized by parameters such as race, class and 
gender or generic considerations (sci-fi, (anti-)utopian literature 
etc.). Topics include, but are not restricted to

- Americanization prolonged and expanded: continuities and 
differences from early 20th century technology-enhanced production 
modes (Fordism, Taylorism) to present-day labor organization, 
including the comparison with non-American modes of production 
(Toyotism etc.)
- Craftsmanship in a global(ized) context: Change of knowledge and 
skills in the process of globalization, the development of 
multinational companies and their capabilities
- Skills and knowledge in a global(ized) context: From embodied 
skills to formalized knowledge, capabilities as an important 
technical factor for multinational companies
- Human resources and the cultural and economic history of global 
workforce mobility: brain drain (respectively gain)
- Changing technologies of financial distribution and their impact on 
producing economy: global markets for futures, options and derivates 
effecting the standardization of production (and lives)
- "Global(ization) literature": emergence of a novel literary 
category/genre, or just another case of old wine in new bottles? 
Probing the limits of current technology-related genres (sci-fi, 
(anti-)utopian narratives) against the backdrop of 21st century 
"world (citizen) literature

Keynote speakers and respondents:
- Thomas Sattelberger, Chief Human Resources Officer and Labor 
Director Deutsche Telekom AG (confirmed)
- Reinhard Blomert, Chief Editor "Leviathan" and associate at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (t.b.c.)
- Jyoti Hosagrahar, Adjunct Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation, Columbia University (t.b.c.)
- Johann-Dietrich Woerner, Chairman of the DLR (German Aerospace 
Center) Executive Board (confirmed)

Timeline for proposals
Abstract proposals (max. 500 words) must be sent by email  to 
<stream4 at tog08.org> or via upload on our website: 
http://www.tog08.org before April, 15th, 2008  Notification of 
acceptance or refusal of abstracts will be given before May, 15th, 
2008 Complete papers (max. 8.000 words) should be sent before 
September 30th, 2008

Conference Proceedings
The most outstanding conference contributions will be published after 
the conference.

Contact
For all conference issues visit our website at http://www.tog08.org.

Post-Graduate School Topology of Technology/ Graduiertenkolleg 
"Topologie der Technik"
Technische Universitaet Darmstadt
Karolinenplatz 5 (P.O. Box 1404), D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany 
http://www.ifs.tu-darmstadt.de/gradkoll-tdt