IDEA League Summer School: Trajectories of Technology

Is development of technology driven by innovation and break through engineering or is technology development incremental resulting from long-term agenda setting, road mapping processes, social interaction? By taking a break and looking back into the history of crucial technologies, path dependencies and decade-old trajectories can be observed. Beside the history and narrative of each singular technology development, major trajectories of technology development can be observed. Thus, looking back in time offers enlightening insights into future possibilities.

The interdisciplinary Summer School Trajectories of Technology seeks to understand the path dependencies of technology development and how much these trajectories constrain today’s technology development. It applies methods from Science and Technology Studies, Innovation Studies, as well as Technology Assessment to offer problem-oriented insights into the history of technology and engineering. In working groups, we will analyze the mutual interdependence of specific technological developments.

The school is jointly organized by lecturers from RWTH Aachen University, ETH Zurich, Politecnico di Milano and guest speakers and will be held in 2022, September 5th to 9th at Aachen. Please find the program here.

The Summer School takes place at the Stadtpalais Theaterstraße 75, 52062 Aachen, and RWTH Guest house Königshügel, Melatenerstraße 31, 52074 Aachen. The registration is closed.