Doctoral Dissertation Research in the History of Technology

技术史博士论文研究

• 批准号: 9710361
• 负责人: Alan I. Marcus
• 金额: $ 0.45万
• 依托单位: Iowa State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-08-01 至 1998-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9710361&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; History; Technology

This project looks at the relationship between technology and its social and cultural context by examining the ways in which changing ideas and attitudes about camp vehicles and leisure camping shaped recreational vehicle technology. Little is known about the ways in which American society framed its technologies to respond to the cultural craze with recreational camping. Preliminary research indicates that the earliest forms of recreational vehicle technologies in the United States evolved as an expression of the social needs and cultural desires of upper class individuals.. But this changed as middle class consumers used a variety of recreational vehicles to fulfill their autocamping needs. Using the history and evolution of recreational vehicles as a case example, the project tests as well as illustrates a dynamic model of the relationship between technological change and social values which argues that technological change occurs in response to specific sets of social and cultural values, rather than serving as a catalyst of social changes in the face of which people have little or no control. The question shifts from wondering when a moment in technological evolution occurred, to asking, first, what social values and ideas prompted the selection of a technology, and second, what new values and ideas may have then prompted the shift from one technology to another. In the specific case of American camp vehicle technology, the changing ideas that may have prompted the replacement of auto-tents, camp-trailers and auto-conversions of earlier use with those technologies primarily in use after 1930, are ones subsumed under the phrase `recreational vehicles.` Indeed, the ideas about what constituted a recreational vehicle changed dramatically after 1930, bringing with them an equally dramatic rearrangement first in the relationship between individual uses and the larger social and cultural context in which they were used, and, second, in the everyday recreational vehicle technologies.

该项目着眼于技术与其社会和文化背景之间的关系，通过研究如何改变对露营车和休闲露营的想法和态度塑造休闲车技术。对于美国社会如何构建其技术以应对休闲露营的文化热潮，我们知之甚少。 初步研究表明，美国最早的休闲车技术形式是作为上层社会个人的社会需求和文化愿望的表达而发展起来的。 但随着中产阶级消费者使用各种休闲车来满足他们的汽车露营需求，这种情况发生了变化。 该项目以休闲车的历史和演变为例，测试并说明了技术变革与社会价值观之间关系的动态模型，该模型认为，技术变革是对特定的社会和文化价值观的回应，而不是作为社会变革的催化剂，面对这种变革，人们几乎无法控制。 这个问题从想知道技术进化的某个时刻是什么时候发生的，转变为问：第一，是什么社会价值观和思想促使人们选择一种技术，第二，是什么新的价值观和思想促使人们从一种技术转向另一种技术。 在美国露营车技术的具体情况下，可能促使早期使用的自动帐篷，露营拖车和自动转换的技术主要在1930年后使用的不断变化的想法，是在短语“休闲车”中包含的。 事实上，1930年后，关于休闲车的概念发生了巨大变化，首先是个人用途与使用它们的更大社会和文化背景之间的关系，其次是日常休闲车技术。