Technology and Nation: learning from the periphery

Abstract

This essay explores the role of technology in building nations as material and cultural artifacts from two peripheral perspectives. First, it brings to the fore what we call epistemic peripheries in the history of technology, be they objects or actors usually neglected when studying the interplay between technology and the nation. Second, it deals with geographic peripheries by focusing on connections, networks, and circulation processes far beyond linear and static core-periphery relations. We claim that one cannot properly understand how technological national identities were created if national boundaries are taken as strict analytical frameworks. In this sense, the essay advocates a transnational history with a wider empirical focus.