Dynamics of Innovation - The Expansion of Technology in Modern Times

BEST KNOWN AS THE LEADING HISTORIAN OF FRENCH RAILWAYS, François Caron has also conducted significant research on other aspects of economic development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as electricity, water and steam power, the theory of innovation, and the structure of enterprise. In this volume, he brings together different facets of his expertise to present a broad panorama of modern technological history. Caron shows how artisanal know-how was adapted, expanded, and formalized during the three industrial revolutions that swept over Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, resulting in a comprehensive analysis of this long, complex, and continuous historical process, leading up to the twenty-first century. He thereby illustrates the increasingly fruitful interaction between technological and scientific knowledge in modern times.

Sommario

Translator's Preface

Introduction

PART ONE

Chapter 1. The Artisanal Mode of Knowledge

Industrial Framework: The World of Trades

Artisanal Knowledge and the Arc of Experience

The Interaction of Trades

Circulation of Knowledge

Chapter 2. From Artisan to Expert

The Appropriation of Artisanal Knowledge

The Role of Writing

Knowledge of Experts

Chapter 3. Formalized Knowledge

The Professional Engineer

The Industrial Enterprise

Science and Utility: The Other Revolution

Practice and Theory

Chapter 4. Technological Adventures

The Production of Energy

The Mechanization of Industry

Birth of the Mechanical Industry

The Chemical Industry

PART TWO

Chapter 5. Industrial Logic and the Dynamics of Knowledge

Entrepreneurs and Enterprises

Artisanal Trades and the Formalization of Knowledge

Engineers and Engineering

Three Examples of Engineering Science

Science, the Universities, and the State

Chapter 6. Steam Engines

Domination of Empirical Knowledge Before 1850

The Birth of Thermodynamics

Experimental Thermodynamics

The Conquest of Great Efficiency

The End of an Era

Chapter 7. The Chemical Industry

Organic Chemistry and the Dye Industry before 1900

Physical Chemistry and the Second Industrial Revolution

Macromolecular Chemistry and Vertical Integration

Summing Up Chemistry

PART THREE

Chapter 8. Technological Interdependence and Consumer Needs

Iron Metallurgy in France in the Nineteenth Century

Generalizing the Model

Chapter 9. Strategies and Social Networks

Global Communities: Gas, Electricity, Automobiles

Social Groups

Enterprises and Networks

The Pillars of Innovation

Local Productive Systems

PART FOUR

Chapter 10. From Early Modern Times to the 1880s

The English Model

The Rise of Mass Civilization in Paris, 1830-1880

Chapter 11. Technological Networks and Communications

French Railways: Rationalization and Cybernetics

Interconnections: Networks of Electricity

Mass Consumption

Mass Production

The Rise of Communications

Telecommunications

The Birth of a Communications Society

Chapter 12. From Microprocessors to the Internet

Flexible Production

Telecommunications

Information and Audiovisual Technologies

Computer Networks and the Birth of the Internet

Communications of a Large Network: the SNCF

The Social Life of Networks, 1995-2008

Chapter 13. Information Technology and Society

Enterprises

Objects of Daily Life

The Era of the Internet and Cellular Phones

The Nature of Messages

Social Connections

The Unforeseen Outcome

Conclusion

Bibliography

Name Index

Info autore

François Caron is Professor Emeritus at the University of Paris IV, where he taught from 1976 to 1998. His many publications include Histoire des chemins de fer en France (vol 1, 1997; vol 2, 2005).

Allan Mitchell (1933-2016) received his PhD from Harvard in 1961, then taught at Smith College (1961-1972) and the University of California, San Diego (1972-1992). His most recent book was The Devil’s Captain: Ernst Jünger in Nazi Paris, 1941-1944 (Berghahn Books, 2011).

Riassunto

BEST KNOWN AS THE LEADING HISTORIAN OF FRENCH RAILWAYS, François Caron has also conducted significant research on other aspects of economic development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as electricity, water and steam power, the theory of innovation, and the structure of enterprise. In this volume, he brings together different facets of his expertise to present a broad panorama of modern technological history. Caron shows how artisanal know-how was adapted, expanded, and formalized during the three industrial revolutions that swept over Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, resulting in a comprehensive analysis of this long, complex, and continuous historical process, leading up to the twenty-first century. He thereby illustrates the increasingly fruitful interaction between technological and scientific knowledge in modern times.

Testo aggiuntivo

"...offers a series of fascinating vignettes tied together by a satisfactory thesis about the commonalities associated with the evolving nature of technological innovation." • The Historian

"To integrate the slow evolution of medieval know-how and the current explosion of information technologies into one analysis is a challenge magnificently met by the historian Fran�ois Caron." • Gerard Moatti, Les Echos.

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Fran Caron, François Caron, Francois Caron, François Caron, Allan Mitchell
• Con la collaborazione di: Allan Mitchell (Traduzione)
• Editore: BERGHAHN BOOKS, INC
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 30.11.2015
• EAN: 9781785330360
• ISBN: 978-1-78533-036-0
• Pagine: 272
• Categorie: Scienze naturali, medicina, informatica, tecnica > Scienze naturali, tematiche generali; Scienze sociali, diritto, economia > Economia > Management; Scienze umane, arte, musica > Storia; History (General)