美国技术史学科的建制形成与地域特征

History of Technology as a Discipline in the United States:From Institutionalization to Its Regional Character

美国技术史学科的诞生与工程学教育大有关联。高校基于工程师在不同时期的社会地位培育其职业意识,早期偏向精英化路径,20世纪中期转而依托以科技为主线的人文观,这一融合为技术史学科及其学会的创立提供了条件。工程学对美国技术史学科的人员构成、研究对象、研究方法和认识论都影响至深。学科始终关注与社会广泛相关的工程系统,进而基于美国“适应、改良、应用”欧洲技术的历史路径,发展出以域境主义为特征的技术史叙事策略,并在当代出现细分化、全球化、社会史化等新趋势。

The emergence of history of technology as a discipline in the United States was the result of an evolving engineering education.Humanities were brought into curriculum,first as a sign of elitism,then to practically preserve engineers’professional identity.The convergence of engineering and humanities laid the groundwork for the new discipline and its society.Engineering hence cast a definitive influence on how objects of research were chosen,which method to use,which philosophy to follow,and what consist of ideal membership for the Society for the History of Technology.Attention has been placed since onto engineering systems that are intricately linked to American society so that stories of how European technologies were“adapted,improved and applied”could be contextualized.Today,contextualism is heading towards an increasingly diversified,globalized and socialized narrative.