Technology and the Production of Difference

Abstract

as the linguistic turn once invited all Americanists to consider rhetoric and representation as crucial parts of every analysis, the field of technology is becoming unavoidable for anyone concerned with communications, material culture, labor, capitalism, globalization/Americanization, or the social construction of culture itself. In part, this is because the meanings of an artifact and its design are flexible, varying from one culture to another, and from one time period to another. Henry Petroski, one of the most widely read experts on design, argues that there is no such thing as perfect form: Designing anything, from a fence to a factory, involves satisfying constraints, making choices, containing costs, and accepting compromises.1 Technologies, which include all of material culture, are social constructions with political and social implications. Once one accepts that technology is far more than steam engines, nuclear reactors, and iPods, but also includes spinning wheels, pottery, bras, hand tools, and Neolithic axes, it is difficult to think of any topic that does not have a technological dimension. Many scholars find themselves becoming historians of technology without quite realizing it. No one interested in slavery can ignore prize-winning works in the history of technology such as Angela Lakwete s Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America or Judith Carney's Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas. Who interested in racism can ignore Michael Adas, Machines as the Measure of Mani2 No one concerned with music or public space will want to miss Emily Thompson s The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933? Studies of technology are indispensable for understanding the social construction of the home, the landscape, the city, the workplace, transport, energy systems, and cultural reproduction.4 As American studies scholars discover potential synergies with this literature, they will find that few historians of technology believe machines are in the saddle and ride mankind. Instead, various forms of social construction dominate the fields theoretical agenda.5 Outside the academy, however, technological