[Themaintainers] CfP Special Issue: Technology over Time: Maintenance & Philosophy of Technology

[mark young]

Dear all,


I'm excited to share the following call for papers for an upcoming special
issue of the journal *Techné* on the topic of maintenance. While the
special issue approaches maintenance as a topic for philosophical
reflection, we're very keen to hear from scholars working outside
philosophy (in any discipline engaging in maintenance and repair studies)
who may be interested in exploring the more philosophical implications of
their work. If you have any questions about potential topics or approaches,
please don't hesitate to get in touch with me at mark at markthomasyoung.net


Best,

Mark


*Technology Over Time: Philosophical Perspectives on Maintenance *



Call for papers for a special Issue of *Techné: Research in Philosophy and
Technology* (Expected Volume 29  Issue 1, 2025)



*Guest Editor*: Mark Thomas Young (University of Vienna)

*Submission Deadline*: October 1st 2023



What happens to technologies after they are produced or constructed? Until
recently,  questions concerning how technologies are maintained over time
were often neglected by scholarship on technology. Yet there is now an
increasing awareness that the traditional focus  in a variety of
disciplines on processes of invention and innovation has hindered our
understanding of the practices of maintenance and repair which are often
necessary for the  persistence of technologies through time. Recently, a
range of disciplines such as history of  technology, sociology, STS,
anthropology and geography have begun addressing this lack by  turning
their attention to maintenance as an object of study. As a result, there is
now a growing body of empirical and historical literature on maintenance
which explores the  richness and diversity of this form of technical
practice. Yet insofar as this body of work has  the potential to challenge
dominant assumptions about the nature of technology and  technical
practices, it also has philosophical relevance, something which is not lost
on scholars  of maintenance and repair studies themselves, who frequently
draw upon philosophical  concepts and theories in order to articulate their
claims.

This special issue of *Techné* aims to bring such considerations into the
spotlight, by  providing an avenue for philosophical reflection on the
nature and significance of  maintenance practices. The editor invites
contributions not only from philosophers interested  in exploring the
philosophical consequences and significance of maintenance, but  also
scholars working within maintenance and repair studies who are interested
in engaging  in reflection on the philosophical aspects of their work.
Potential topics may include (but are  not limited to);



• New perspectives on the temporality of artifacts

• The nature of expertise

• Phenomenological perspectives on maintenance

• Critical and feminist perspectives on labor (i.e., invisible labor)

• The Political nature of artifacts

• Resilience and socio-technical systems

• Technology and process philosophy

• Sustainability, Circular Economy and Environmental Philosophy

• Situating maintenance among philosophical theories of making and use

• The meaning or nature of maintenance as a unitary or divided form of
technical  practice



Special guest editor Mark Thomas Young welcomes prospective authors to
contact him prior to submission if they have questions or ideas to share at
mark at markthomasyoung.net

Papers are expected to typically range between 6000 and 8000 words
(including notes and references). Papers will be anonymously reviewed and
should be accompanied by an abstract of no more than 150 words. Contributions
must be submitted online through the journal’s ScholarOne manuscript
submission site: https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/techne no later than
October 1st, 2023. The name of the special issue: ‘Technology Over Time:
Philosophical Perspectives on Maintenance’ should be included in the cover
letter upon submission. For detailed instructions on how to prepare papers
for submission please consult *Techné*’s submission guidelines at:

https://www.pdcnet.org/techne/Submission-Guidelines


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