Over the past thirty years, the history of technology has been so extensively renewed that many once-canonical narratives have been invalidated.

This collective work takes account of several of these major recompositions: ancient periods were never eras of technical stagnation; techniques are not “diffused”, but interpenetrate and reinvent themselves as they travel; invention is not an individual epiphany, but a gradual and often collective process; far from neutral, the material is endowed with its own agentivity; the notions of capitalism, gender and the environment are fertile contributions to the history of techniques, and have served to invalidate many naiveties.

These recent works have put an end to the discontinuous vision of a history made up of straightforward technical ruptures, in favor of more complex descriptions that provide a better grasp of the real dynamics of today’s world.

Guillaume Carnino is Lecturer in the History of Technology at Compiègne University of Technology, France. As a nineteenth-century historian, his research interests include the epistemological and industrial foundations of technology.

Xavier Guchet is Professor of Philosophy at Compiègne University of Technology, France. His work focuses on the history of the philosophy of technology and the epistemological and ethical challenges of new technologies.