Technologies in decline : socio-technical approaches to discontinuation and destabilisation / edited by Zahar Koretsky [and three others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Koretsky, Zahar.

Contributor:

Koretsky, Zahar, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Product life cycle.

Product obsolescence.

Product elimination.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (295 pages)

Edition:

1 ed.

Place of Publication:

2022.

London, England ; New York, New York : Routledge, [2023]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The central questions of this book are how technologies decline, how societies deal with technologies in decline, and how governance may be explicitly oriented towards parting with 'undesirable' technology. Surprisingly, these questions are fairly novel. Thus far, the dominant interest in historical, economic, sociological and political studies of technology has been to understand how novelty emerges, how innovation can open up new opportunities and how such processes may be supported. This innovation bias reflects how in the last centuries modern societies have embraced technology as a vehicle of progress. It is timely, however, to broaden the social study of technology and society: next to considering the rise of technologies, their fall should be addressed, too. Dealing with technologies in decline is an important challenge or our times, as socio-technical systems are increasingly part of the problems of climate change, biodiversity loss, social inequalities and geo-political tensions. This volume presents empirical studies of technologies in decline, as well as conceptual clarifications and theoretical deepening. Technologies in Decline presents an emerging research agenda for the study of technological decline, emphasising the need for a plurality of perspectives. Given that destabilisation and discontinuation are seen as a way to accelerate sustainability transitions, this book will be of interest to academics, students and policy makers researching and working in the areas of sustainability science and policy, economic geography, innovation studies, and science and technology studies.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

Notes on contributors

Preface

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction: The relevance of technologies in decline

PART I: Conceptual explorations

2. Dynamics of technological decline as socio-material unravelling

3. Destabilisation, decline and phase-out in transitions research

4. Conceptual aspects of discontinuation governance: An exploration

PART II: Empirical explorations

5. Discourses around decline: Comparing the debates on coal phase-out in the UK, Germany and Finland

6. Mapping the territorial adaptation of technological trajectories: The phase-out of the internal combustion engine

7. The role of alternative technologies in the enactment of (dis)continuities

8. Caring for decline: The case of 16mm film artworks of Tacita Dean

PART III: Governance explorations

9. Implementing exnovation?: Ambitions and governance complexity in the case of the Brussels Low Emission Zone

10. Phase-out as a policy approach to address sustainability challenges: A systematic revie

11. The end of the world's leaded petrol era: Reflections on the final four decades of a century-long campaign

12. Conclusions and continuations: Horizons for studying technologies in decline

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

CC BY-NC-ND

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781003213642

1003213642

9781000831498

1000831493

OCLC:

1351197357