Are you interested in studying cultures of making and maintaining in Asia and Africa? Would you like to engage with “sustainability” as a critical humanities scholar? Would you like to do historical research while contributing to debates on pathways to more inclusive, sustainable futures?
And would you like to work in a research group that brings together expertise in transnational historical research with expertise in transdisciplinary, transformation-oriented research? Then apply for this PhD position at the History Lab (Technology, Innovation & Society group, School of Innovation Sciences, TU/e).
Job description
Scholars from history of technology and science and technology studies (STS), among others, have criticized mainstream discourses on sustainability as eco-modernist. Sustainability, they argue, is not only about novelty, about replacing unsustainable technology of the present with what is framed as innovative ‘green’ technology of the future. There is also considerable sustainability potential in the maintenance, re-use and evolution of technological and infrastructural legacies. Not only are these legacies highly diverse, but so are the pathways to more sustainable futures around the globe. Still, the current sustainability debate oftentimes attaches universal value to a particular developmental trajectory that is deeply embedded in Western European and North American histories.
The starting point for your PhD research is the idea that the Non-Western world offers a wealth of long-established practices that are based on the efficient and sustainable use of resources. These practices are often overlooked and marginalized, for example, because their underlying motivations are non-economic or because they take place in the context of an informal or weakly regulated economy. Oftentimes, actors themselves do not associate these practices with sustainability, but with pragmatic reactions to a relative scarcity of resources and capital (typically framed as “poverty”). Research on Non-Western contexts has recently provided us with instructive case studies, e.g. on water and energy provision in urban “off-grid spaces” (Munro 2020); two and three-wheeled transport (van der Straeten 2022); vernacular practices of building (van der Straeten and Petrova 2021); or urban food self-provisioning (Jehlička et. al. 2023).
In your PhD project, you will contribute to this emerging debate with an own case study. You will enjoy considerable freedom in choosing and developing your PhD project, as long as it, first, includes dedicated historical research as a major component and, second, puts its geographical focus on Africa or Asia (multi-sited research is possible). In your PhD project, you will investigate how highly adapted, resource-efficient practices have evolved and transformed over time. You may focus on various aspects, such as local cultures of making and maintaining; the social organization of creativity; the relationship between “imported” and “indigenous” practices, artefacts, or more broader, between the global and local; the interaction between “informal” and “formal” infrastructures and economies; or the role of state authorities in governing them.
In this PhD project you will critically engage with the concept of “sustainability”– a term that is problematic as an analytical concept in the humanities, but also allows us to connect our research to key societal debates of our time. You will also explore how historical knowledge can become actionable for the development of more inclusive sustainable future imaginaries. In doing so, you will collaborate with a diverse interdisciplinary team of humanities scholars at the TU/e History Lab. You are also encouraged to collaborate with societal partners to enrich historiography and to imagine more inclusive sustainable futures. The supervision team will include Erik van der Vleuten and Jonas van der Straeten.
Next to your research, resulting in a PhD thesis, you will be teaching in courses taught by the Technology, Innovation and Society group (~15% of your time). Your work will be supported with committed supervision and additional research training.