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After Innovation, Turn to Maintenance

Technology and culture, 2018, Vol.59 (1), p.1-25 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

Copyright © The Society for the History of Technology. ;Copyright Johns Hopkins University Press Jan 2018 ;ISSN: 0040-165X ;ISSN: 1097-3729 ;EISSN: 1097-3729 ;DOI: 10.1353/tech.2018.0004 ;PMID: 29731465

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  • Title:
    After Innovation, Turn to Maintenance
  • Author: Russell, Andrew L ; Vinsel, Lee
  • Subjects: Activities of daily living ; Breakdowns ; Creativity ; Dependence ; Essays ; Historians ; Historiography ; Innovations ; Inventions ; Isaacson, Walter ; Meaning ; Mechanics ; Obsession ; Repair ; Repair & maintenance ; Sacred texts ; Social networks ; Technological change ; Technology
  • Is Part Of: Technology and culture, 2018, Vol.59 (1), p.1-25
  • Description: Our title, “After Innovation,” has a double meaning that we should make explicit. The first refers to the process of technological development and use, where invention and innovation are early phases. Yet even the briefest of reflections suggests that daily life with technology usually is far removed from the cutting edges of invention and innovation. Accordingly, when we emphasize maintenance we stand alongside historians who define technology as something broader than innovation. We stand among those who study momentum and path dependence, use and users, repair and breakdown, and the decline and senescence of “old” technologies and technological systems—those things that may be swept away in the Schumpeterian gale of creative destruction.2 The second meaning of our title refers to historiography and is meant to provoke and encourage a change in topical emphasis in our field. We live in a culture obsessed with novelty, and, as we describe below, this obsession has left a noticeable impact on the dissertations, papers, grant proposals, and books that historians of technology write. We believe it is time to detach from our era’s obsession with “innovation-speak,” and this essay will suggest avenues forward for historians writing after (our) innovation (obsession).
  • Publisher: United States: Johns Hopkins University Press
  • Language: English
  • Identifier: ISSN: 0040-165X
    ISSN: 1097-3729
    EISSN: 1097-3729
    DOI: 10.1353/tech.2018.0004
    PMID: 29731465
  • Source: ProQuest Central
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