Abstract
This article provides a theoretical and empirical contribution to the political history of technology by articulating a new conceptual perspective on the power of technological things and through outlining a history of modern urban technological terror and terrorism. It introduces a user-centered perspective on technological politics in the form of 'subject histories of technology' which, contrasting with prevalent 'object histories of technology' on technological inventions and innovators, emphasize the self-fashioning power of technological artifacts. Through an overview history of technology of 'terrormindedness' covering the three subsequent waves of urban terror arising from aerial bombardment, nuclear weapons and substate terrorism it shows how technologies have been used by individual citizens to cope with the experience of man-made fear and insecurity. In conclusion it argues that the political history of technology should to the focus on community politics and system politics of big institutional technologies add an attention to the personal politics of the emotional and material power of small technical things.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Technology and Culture |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Pages (from-to) | 391-416 |
| Number of pages | 32 |
| ISSN | 0040-165X |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Dec 2011 |
