History Lab

Source: https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/innovation-sciences/technology-innovation-society/history-lab Parent: https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/innovation-sciences/technology-innovation-society

Research theme

History Lab

The TU/e History Lab is a global center for the historical study of interacting technological, social and environmental changes.

We develop historical research, education and public outreach relevant to present-day debates on the role of engineering and technology in causing, mediating, and solving societal and environmental ‘grand challenges’. We engage with public and policy debates that range from the local, such as the sustainable urban mobility challenge (SDG 11 sustainable cities and communities), to the global, such as transcontinental resource chains that connect the sustainability and inequality histories of different places across the globe (SDG 10 reduced inequalities; SDG 12 responsible production and consumption). Through the in-house Foundation for the History of Technology SHT we collaborate with government, business, research, and civil society organizations; communicate to a broader public; and coordinate transnational research collaborations.

Example programs:

Our Sustainable Urban Mobility/ Cycling Cities program works with local governments and stakeholder organizations to develop historically-informed policy studies on today’s urban mobility challenges.
Our program on the interrelationship of Fear and Technology investigates how fears are both the source and the result of technologies – and vice‐versa.
Our program on Global Connections explores how circulation of knowledge, people and artefacts contributes to processes of local appropriation.\
We coordinate the pan-European research program Technology and ‘grand’ societal challenges 1800-2050\
We host the secretariat of two major transnational research associations: the US-based Society for the History of Technology SHOT and the Pan-European Tensions of Europe. From July 2020 we host the editorial office of the SHOT quarterly journal Technology & Culture.

Website of the Eindhoven History Lab

Some of our research projects

[Research project

Global REsources And Sustainability of European modernization, 1820-2020

The program argues that sustainability issues in neither the Global South, nor in Europe, should be studied in geographical isolation.…](https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/innovation-sciences/technology-innovation-society/projects/global-resources-and-sustainability-of-european-modernization-1820-2020)[Research project

Smart Cycling Futures

How can smart cycling innovations contribute to more resilient and live-able Dutch urban regions.](https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/innovation-sciences/technology-innovation-society/smart-cycling-futures)