Society for the History of Technology

Bruce Seely
Secretary, SHOT

When considered from the perspective of involvement in international matters, the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) has a position shared by only a few other members of the ACLS. Founded in 1958, the Society is the national organization for scholars working in the field in the United States. In this capacity, it serves about 1,400 of its 1,800 individual members through a journal and annual meetings. At the same time, by definition SHOT has always been an international organization, and the membership currently includes 400 individual and about 522 institutional members from outside North America. Meeting this dual purpose has never been easy. In reality, for most of its existence the Society has served much more as the national organization for scholars in the United States and Canada.

There were, however, three ways in which the Society attempted during its early years to live up to its stated purpose of being an international body of scholars. The primary means of international participation was through the involvement of individual scholars in the Society’s annual meetings (at their own expense). This meant that a few senior professors with the wherewithal or stature to secure travel funds became regular participants in the Society’s annual meetings; some served within the governance structure as members of committees or the Executive Council. A second and much more important mechanism was the Society’s journal, Technology and Culture, which was billed from the outset as “The International Quarterly of the Society for the History of Technology,” and early on achieved an international circulation. The identification of corresponding members in a number of countries outside the United States offered one device for connecting many of the same senior scholars who attended meetings more closely to the primary activity of SHOT — its journal. By the 1980s, however, this mechanism had become little more than window dressing that provided those international scholars with a free subscription to the journal. The original intention that corresponding members would channel news, information, and papers to the journal had fallen into disuse.

Another early international connection for the Society came with its involvement and participation in a UNESCO-chartered group linked indirectly to the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science. The International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC) was created in 1968 as an outgrowth of Cold War concerns to provide a bridge between scholars working in the capitalist West and communist East. The structure of the organization was on national lines, with each country designating a delegation for each annual meeting. The head of the U.S. delegation for many years was SHOT’s founder and secretary, who recruited the delegation from SHOT members willing to give papers. This individual was, according to the ICOHTEC constitution, a permanent vice-president of ICOHTEC, as was the head of the delegation from the U.S.S.R. Only within the past three years has ICOHTEC redrawn its constitution and changed the membership to an individual, rather than a national, basis. These and other adjustments make ICOHTEC an important bridge between U.S. and European scholars, and much of SHOT’s international involvement will continue to be linked to ICOHTEC. There is some chance that ICOHTEC will become an umbrella for the history of technology in Europe, and plans for launching its own journal are being considered.

Since 1989, however, the Society for the History of Technology has been seriously concerned with developing better and expanded international relations. The shift was prompted by comments from non-U.S. members, who felt themselves second-class citizens, and remarks from leading American scholars, who suggested the Society and its journal were doing little to live up to their international designations. The context for the discussion was a proposal to hold an annual meeting in Sweden. At about the same time, efforts to develop organizations that better served the needs of scholars in the history of technology outside North America were taking shape in Europe. Discussion at an international meeting in The Netherlands in November 1990 centered on forming a “EURO-SHOT,” while other scholars worked to produce a directory of scholars outside North America. By 1993, other fruits of these discussions were evident in the formation of a German national organization devoted exclusively to the history of technology; the development of an informal network linking scholars in Germany, France, and England by newsletter; and the strengthening of an existing network of scholars in the Scandinavian countries. Within the past year, another encouraging sign was an attempt to improve a European journal in the history of technology, with the goal of making it a European equivalent to Technology and Culture.

These developments have been strongly supported by SHOT and its members, but significant awkwardness has existed about the appropriate role for Americans and for SHOT in the development of institutional bases for the field outside the United States. The Society is clearly viewed by many scholars outside the United States as a role model, while SHOT members want to support efforts to develop networks and organizations meeting local needs. But SHOT members also have been very concerned not to appear to favor some groups or individuals over others; reticence stems from lack of familiarity by North Americans with local politics, customs, and the full range of people and scholarly issues in other countries. Equally strong has been a desire to avoid appearances of cultural imperialism. SHOT addressed this general situation by appointing a committee to study the Society’s connections to its non-U.S. members in 1991. The committee’s recommendations, made in 1992 and adopted the following year, included few radical steps — more coverage in the journal to non-U.S. books in the book review section; more attention to non-U.S. activities in the newsletter; and significant attention to extending international involvement. Importantly, the Society explicitly rejected the designation as the society for the history of technology. Perhaps the most important step was an agreement in principle to hold SHOT’s annual meeting outside the United States approximately every four years. Unresolved was a mechanism for insuring the participation of non-U.S. members within the governance structure. Committee appointments have often allowed those from outside the country to participate, but election of non-U.S. scholars to the Executive Council has been less common. The Council rejected, however, a proposal to pair nominees to insure the election of non-U. S. scholars. The crux of the problem remained finding ways to balance the efforts to be both the national society in the United States and an international society for interested scholars outside the country. The primary result has been much higher consciousness among the officers and many members about meeting this dual mission.

At about the same time, SHOT began to pursue several efforts to enhance what it sees as the most important developments emerging from the strengthening of scholarly work in the history of technology outside North America — genuine interchange of people and ideas. For the past five years, significant effort has been given by SHOT’s officers to supporting and expanding the international community of scholars in the history of technology. The first effort in this direction was the formation in the early 1990s of its International Scholars program. Based on the recommendation of a Society committee, this initiative is designed to involve and connect non-U.S. scholars to the organization, while at the same time making U.S. scholars more aware of the community outside the United States. (See the appendix for a description of this program, its goals, and operating procedures.) Up to 10 scholars are appointed each year by a nominating committee chaired by a U.S. historian of technology with three members from outside the United States and the president. The goal is to offer recognition to younger Scholars just beginning their careers, and to identify those more senior scholars who are moving into the field. This is not intended to be an honorary position for senior members of the field. Each scholar is appointed for two years and receives a complimentary subscription to the journal and full membership. In return they are urged to attend an annual meeting (although travel funds have heen problematic) and to prepare a short essay describing the state of the history of technology in their country or some other feature of their national scene. These essays have begun to appear in the SHOT Newsletter and have provided important information for North American members about work done elsewhere.

This program was launched in 1991 with the designation of the first three International Scholars by the president. In 1992, at the Society’s first international meeting, held in Uppsala, Sweden, a full slate of 10 scholars was identified. Based on feedback from the first groups of International Scholars, the program seems to be meeting many of its goals. There is clearly a better knowledge of SHOT members and historians of technology who live outside the United States. The newsletter articles have attracted favorable comment and produced a much better understanding of the international landscape of the field. In the past three elections for the Executive Council, two non-U.S. members have won seats. It is too early to see more than hints of change in the pages of the journal, although three of the last 10 winners of the Society’s article prize, including the most recent, have resided outside the United States. We hope this program will lead to more submissions of high quality articles. Finally, International Scholars themselves report that they have been assisted in their efforts to gain travel support to the annual meetings by the International Scholars designation.

Helping International Scholars find the means of attending the Society’s annual meeting is a crucial concern in making this program even more successful. The Society has attempted to address the issue, but not as a strictly international matter. Since 1992, the Society has been able to award small grants to assist graduate students, independent scholars, and a few beginning professionals who wish to attend the annual meeting. The fund-raising efforts stretched back over five years, and the program has been continued thanks to the generosity of a foundation with personal ties to the history of technology. For the meetings in Sweden in 1992 and in Washington, D.C., in 1993, approximately $7,500 was made available, with non-U.S. members eligible for support. Because of special circumstances in 1994, about $7,500 was available just for international travel — and 11 non-U.S. members received support, including three International Scholars. We doubt we can continue this level of support for long, but the just-concluded 1994 annual meeting had the largest contingent of non-U.S. historians of technology in recent memory. Coincidentally, there was a sense among participants that this was one of the most dynamic meetings in recent years. Taken together, the travel grant initiative and International Scholars program have clearly signaled the Society’s commitment to strengthening the continuing interplay between North America and the rest of the world. A number of historians of technology outside North America are now more connected to SHOT.

The Society considers these programs a success in addressing the needs of non-U.S. members, as well as in expanding the level of contact between scholars around the globe. As part of this effort, it has participated in the various ACLS-sponsored initiatives to distribute journals to Sub-Saharan Africa and to Eastern Europe, and supported other similar steps. There have been pitfalls, of course. A proposal made in 1990 to develop a Japanese affiliate (J-SHOT) started out with strong support in the Society until it was realized that the individual in Japan was pushing this connection to advance his own efforts to win recognition for his institution vis-à-vis other Japanese universities. After this experience, the idea of forming national affiliates was dropped. Significantly, SHOT’s efforts to recognize International Scholars seems not to have generated similar problems or run afoul of jealousies within the sometimes more hierarchical academic structures of some countries.

But more importantly, these programs speak to the increasingly international nature of the history of technology in the 1990s. This field has never been a strictly American enterprise. Institutional Support in Europe, for example, resided in several important museums — the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the Science Museum in London, and the Tekniska Museet in Stockholm — as well as in institutions such as the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris. But through the 1970s, the strength of the field was clearly in North America. Throughout its history, SHOT has provided a welcoming home for those working outside the United States, and the relative lack of competing institutional and professional arrangements within the field have served to keep that door open. Many non-U.S. members genuinely want to be more involved in SHOT’s programs and activities; that they can do so without seeming to abandon national programs or other international groups is an important factor in this decision. SHOT’s efforts to be supportive without being domineering seem to have helped as well, although scholars elsewhere may have a very different perspective on SHOT’s initiatives.

The increasingly international nature of scholarship in the history of technology is evident in the source of important new ideas and perspectives in the field since the mid-1980s. In important ways, some of the most influential work has been done by non-U.S. historians of technology. Much of this scholarship has focused on the ideas and theoretical approaches emerging from the sociology of science and sociology of knowledge — namely, social construction. While not new in other areas, this line of approach arrived late to the history of technology and the point of entry was almost exclusively European. A conference in The Netherlands and a resulting book carried this work to an American audience, and its acceptance has done more to open the field to non-U.S. perspectives than any other development. The continuation of the Society’s efforts to be more open to international currents is a clear reflection of the institutional strengthening in Europe noted above and of an increase in the numbers of first-class scholars in the field. In other words, the value of communication across the Atlantic has been recognized and accepted by historians of technology within and without the United States. As a pair of German historians noted in an International Scholars essay published in the SHOT Newsletter, the flow of scholarly work and ideas, which used to be from the United States to Europe, is now much more balanced. And comparative work — a trend growing in many areas of history — is becoming evident in the history of technology as well.

This is the context to the Society’s deliberate efforts to facilitate international exchanges beginning in the early 1990s. The goal has been to encourage means of extending this pattern of scholarly development, focusing on the means of facilitating individual connections such as develop at scholarly meetings. But the increasingly easy access to electronic mail has done much to enhance these patterns — and here SHOT has played little role. It is absolutely clear that the ease of personal communication is essential to many individuals in their work in ways that were never true before the Internet. The result is that in less than a decade — actually over the past five years — the history of technology has developed a distinctly different look. To be sure, not all scholars are part of an electronic communications network, and many continue to do their work with no noticeable difference. But at the institutional level, and in terms of the most exciting work in the field, there is a distinctly international flavor. The 1992 annual meeting in Sweden was a turning point, bringing together 400 people, only 150 of whom were from North America. About 200 participants were at their first meeting of the Society. The pattern visible in Uppsala has continued at subsequent meetings, with more first-time presenters, many of them younger and from outside the United States, on the Society’s program. We see little reason to think this will change.

SHOT is not yet a totally international organization, and will not become completely so, given its mission to serve the needs of North American scholars. But the field has never been more international in scope. Both the Society and the scholarship of the field — by members and non-members alike — are better for that development. In 1996, the Society will meet in London, and expects to further enhance the developing international flavor of the history of technology.

Appendix

SHOT Committee on International Scholars

The Committee on International Scholars shall consist of four members, including a chairperson, appointed by the president. The membership shall reflect the goals and intent of the International Scholars program. The committee shall administer the International Scholars program, which is intended to: 1) foster a stronger international community for the study of the history of technology; 2) strengthen the Society’s role as an international society for the history of technology; 3) identify and help non-U.S. historians of technology participate in the meetings and governance of the Society; 4) provide formal recognition of the work of non-U.S. historians of technology so that their respective governments and national academic communities will provide greater support for their Society-related activities; 5) provide special recognition for younger, non-U.S. scholars in their quest for support and recognition of their work in the history of technology; and 6) foster an international network of scholars in the history of technology that will benefit all members of the Society.

The Committee shall be responsible for developing a list of nominees and applicants among historians of technology working outside the United States. Announcements shall be made in the SHOT Newsletter so that individuals may nominate themselves or be nominated by other members of the Society. The initial class of International Scholars shall be chosen by the committee immediately after this amendment is approved. Thereafter, nominations must be received by the Secretary no later than May 1, so that selections can be made by the committee in July. The selection criteria developed by the Committee shall not be rigidly defined. The Committee shall select up to seven International Scholars each year for a two-year term. The Committee shall also provide its comprehensive list and its list of nominees to the president of the Society, who shall choose up to three additional International Scholars, also in July.

International Scholars are selected in two ways. The first procedure will involve selection by a Committee on International Fellows, which shall choose up to seven International Scholars each year from a list of nominees and applicants. Individuals may be nominated by any member of SHOT, or may nominate themselves; notices describing this process will appear in the newsletter and in Technology and Culture. The actual selection shall be made in July. The second selection procedure shall be the choice of up to three additional International Scholars each year by the president of the Society. The president shall consult the list of nominees used by the Committee on International Fellows, but shall not be required to make selections solely from the list. The president shall make the selections in July.

International Scholars shall be individuals who reside and work outside the United States. International Scholars may be both junior and more advanced scholars. They shall be chosen for a two-year term beginning in January.

International Scholars shall enjoy all rights and privileges of the society, including voting, and shall not be required to pay dues during their tenure as International Fellows. They will be strongly encouraged to attend the annual meetings during their term as International Scholar. In addition, they will be encouraged to present at least one report or essay review on the history of technology scene in their country for possible presentation to, or publication by, the Society.