New Call for Contributions: Technological Modernization. Western and Non-Western Accounts (deadline January 5, 2026)
guest editors:
Carl Mitcham, YAN Ping, and YE Luyang
For a long time, it went without saying: Modernization is firmly a Western affair, if only because of its origins in modern science, capitalism, industrialization, and the formation of liberal societies. In the contemporary multi-polar world and an age of technoscience, this view has been challenged. China and Russia, India and Brazil have been exploring non-Western models of modernization. How credible are these attempts? The answer may depend on the role of technology in political narratives of a nation"s future and past. Technical monuments, transport infrastructures, the many arts of survival, the achievement of bureaucracy are indicators of a social organization that need not rely on religious dogma or authoritarian rule, but need not undermine it either. The long-presumed global power of the West still holds sway in consumerism but has been debunked for the hegemonizing reach of Western technology. We invite narratives and counter-narratives of technological modernization from history and philosophy of technology, political theory, cultural studies, global TA and comparative governance, environmental and sustainability research as well as the microsociological study of technological development.
