New 4TU Centre focuses on the history of technology

The 4TU.History of Technology centre will stimulate and facilitate research, education and public debate on the role of technology in societal transitions then and now. 'A better understanding of the history of technology helps us to broaden our view and enables us to gain more nuanced insights on the connections between technological, social and environmental change. How can we use such insights to make ongoing transitions more inclusive and more sustainable?' says scientific director Erik van der Vleuten.

From Wageningen University & Research, Associate Professor Harro Maat of the Knowledge, Technology & Innovation group, and Professor Ewout Frankema of the Rural & Environmental History group are involved. Harro Maat says, ‘Other groups and WUR employees can also join, for example, researchers working on changes in landscape, dietary patterns, or ecology in a historical perspective. And this is not bound to a specific time period. Many researchers use sustainability, climate changes, and other future-oriented concepts, for example, science fiction or biodiversity, to ask questions about the recent or more distant past.'

The centre's activities will also highlight the rich tradition of the engineering profession. ''The opportunity to work on societal problems has been an important driver of the civil engineering profession since its emergence some two centuries ago. Engineers contributed to the material shaping of society by constructing buildings and roads, railways and canals, waterworks and communications, agriculture and food supply and so on. Understanding past engineering visions, concerns, dilemmas and choices helps to create awareness about the societal roles of the engineering profession and community. We think that is important'' explains Erik van der Vleuten. The centre plans to organise an annual symposium involving the alumni networks of the four TUs and external parties such as the Royal Institute of Engineers (KIVI) and the Netherlands Academy of Engineering (NAE).

The centre wants to take a coordinating role in attracting research funding through programmes at NWO and the Nationale Wetenschapsagenda, for example. Such funding programmes are important as they allow the research capacity at the various technical universities to be expanded.

The centre also considers it important to keep in touch with the discipline internationally. For example, it cooperates with the Society for the History of Technology and the Tensions of Europe Network, and there are specific plans to collaborate with universities in Africa, Asia and South America.

In education, the centre intends to develop joint courses and curricula and work towards a joint master's programme, so that students at all four TUs have access to interesting and relevant courses on the history of their field and relevant lessons for present-day and future challenges.

The third pillar is the transfer of knowledge to society. Plans include developing teaching packages for secondary school students, collaborating with science museums such as NEMO, Discovery, and the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave and building a network of social partners around the centre's research themes.

Together with a variety of social partners, the centre seeks to develop working methods to co-create historical knowledges and make such knowledge actionable; how can we narrate stories of 'where we came from' and 'where we want to go from here' in the context of current and future societal and environmental challenges?