- Docente: Anna Guagnini
- Credits: 6
- SSD: M-STO/05
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Philosophical Sciences (cod. 0975)
Learning outcomes
The aim of the course is to provide the interpretive tools for the analysis of the development of technological knowledge. These tools will be used not only in an historical perspective but also as an introduction to the debate on the role and characteristics of technology in contemporary society and on the dynamics of technological change.
Course contents
Invention, innovation and technological change. Problems and perspectives
The primary goal of this course is to introduce students to current research, especially historical, on the themes of invention, innovation and technological change. The aim is to provide students with theoretical tools for a critical analysis of these themes. The selected readings are meant to help students refine their own ability to pursue interesting questions related to the development of technology as a form of knowledge and of practice, and to the characteristics and the representations of the actors, the contexts and the dynamics of such process.
Readings/Bibliography
Invention, innovation and technological change. Themes and perspectives
The programme consists of two parts:
Part 1: Text
Nathan Rosenberg
Esplorando la scatola nera. Tecnologia, economia e storia
Milano; Giuffrè, 1999 (Originale: Exploring the black box. Technology, economics and history, Cambridge University Press, 1999)
Parte 2: One of the two groups of essays indicated below
NB: Copies of the essays are available at the Segreteria Didattica of the Department of Philosophy, via Zamboni 38, 2nd floor
L'inventore: la fine di un mito?
Christine MacLeod
“Concepts of invention and the patent controversy in Victorian Britain”, in Robert Fox (ed.), Technological change (Amsterdam; Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996), pp. 137-53.
W. Bernard Carlson
“Innovation and the modern corporation. From heroic invention to industrial science”, in J. Krige e Dominique Pestre, Science in the twentieth century (Amsterdam, Harwood, 1997, pp. 203-226
Thomas P. Hughes
America genesis. A century of invention and technological enthusiasm, 1870-1970 (New York: Viking, 1989); Capitolo 1, pp. 13-52.
L'industrializzazione dell'invenzione nel Novecento.
Leonard S. Reich
The making of American industrial research. Science and business at G E and Bell, 1876-1926 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985). Capitolo 4, “Origins and the early history of the General Electric Research Laboratory”, pp. 62-96.
Robert Kargon, Stuart W. Leslie, Erica Schoenberger
“Far beyond big science: Science regions and the organization of research and development”, in Peter Galison, Bruce Hevly (eds.), Big science: The growth of large-scale research, (Stanford; Stanford UP, 1992), p.334-354.
David Hounshell
“Invention in the industrial research laboratory: Individual act or collective process?” Weber, Robert J., e Perkins, David (a cura di) Inventive minds. Creativity in technology (Oxford; Oxford UP, 1992)
Teaching methods
Class discussion of the assigned readings is an essential element of the course. One of the weekly lessons will be devoted to such discussion; students will be invited to submit observations and comments, and their contributions will be one of the elements of the final grading.
Visits to local museums and, if appropriate, to other museums, will be organized.
Assessment methods
The students who will attend the lectures regularly will discuss four of the thematic groups indicated in the "Testi" section
The final examination will be oral. Students are invited to prepare a written report on a theme discussed and approved by lecturer; the result will be contribute to the final assessment.
Teaching tools
The teaching will be complemented by powerpoint presentations
Links to further information
http://www.cis.unibo.it/index.html
Office hours
See the website of Anna Guagnini