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June 1st, 2016 by: Vivek Kant

The Human as a System Component in Nuclear Installations: Jens Rasmussen and High-Risk Systems, 1961–1983

Technology’s Stories vol. 4, no. 1 – doi: 10.15763/JOU.TS.2016.6.1.03 PDF: Kant_Human as System Component In 1976, the Danish engineer, Jens Rasmussen[1], was well aware that his approach to studying human performance in high-risk technological contexts was breaking new ground. He commented wryly, “When entering a study of human performance in real-life tasks one rapidly finds…

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September 1st, 2015 by: Laura Ann Twagira

Interrogating the “Machine” and Women’s Things

Technology’s Stories vol. 3, no. 3 – doi: 10.15763/JOU.TS.2015.9.1.01 PDF: Twagira_Interrogating the Machine When I[1] interviewed Mariam “Mamu” Coulibaly in Kankan (Mali, West Africa) about women’s work in the early twentieth century she told me about a labor intensive cooking process that involved farming, collecting and processing spices, pounding grains, and finally combining all those…

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Techno-Histories in Mozambique: A Photographic Story Article

September 1st, 2015 by: Drew Thompson

Techno-Histories in Mozambique: A Photographic Story

Technology’s Stories vol. 3, no. 3 – doi: 10.15763/JOU.TS.2015.9.1.02 PDF: Thompson_Techno-Histories in Mozambique A person (Figure 1) dressed in fatigues has his back to the camera (that is photographing the scene) and stands in a living room. The pictured subjects (five of whom are in the frame) appear to direct their attention towards another male…

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September 1st, 2015 by: Jennifer Hart

Automobility, Technopolitics, and African Histories of Technology-in-Use in Twentieth Century Ghana

Technology’s Stories vol. 3, no. 3 – doi: 10.15763/JOU.TS.2015.9.1.03 PDF: Hart_Automobility On May 31, 1940, the President of the Accra Town Council (ATC) wrote to the Colonial Secretary, complaining that “pirate passenger lorries” were plying the roads between the Gold Coast’s capital, Accra, and the eastern suburb of Labadi.  A heavily traveled route, the road…

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September 1st, 2015 by: Tara Dosomu Diener

Wards Apart?: Rethinking the Hospital through a West African Lens

Technology’s Stories vol 3, no. 3 – doi:10.15763/JOU.TS.2015.9.1.04 PDF: Diener_Wards Apart Two continents, two hospitals Hospital A has problems. Exterior security is heavy with electronic technology meant to restrict access, but behind the doors the image of order fades. The night shift is so under-staffed that an off-duty EMT is recruited from the emergency department…

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June 21st, 2015 by: Christian Gelzer

Speed is a Virtue: Travel in the Mid-Nineteenth Century United States

Technology’s Stories vol. 3, no. 2 – doi: 10.15763/JOU.TS.2015.9.1.05 PDF: Gelzer_Speed is a Virtue In 1830 the Lancaster, Ohio school board observed with one voice that if God had meant “his creatures” to travel at the “frightful speed of 15 miles per hour He would have foretold it through His holy prophets.” Such speed was…

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