TOG08 - Technologies of Globalization

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Technologies of Globalization – interdisciplinary views from all over the globe, and from outer space.

A synopsis of the first international conference of the TU Darmstadt graduate school (Graduiertenkolleg) Topology of Technology*

Expectably, an international conference entitled „Technologies of Globalization“ is primarily concerned with developments and applied research generated or implemented on the face of the earth. Presumably the most astounding thesis of the two-day conference at the TU Darmstadt in late October 2008 was however related to outer space. As Johann-Dietrich Wörner, CEO of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), declared, the next few decades will see a reconquest of the moon for the purpose of installing an outpost for scientists and private space tourists. Like their precursor cosmonauts and astronauts, these 21st century space travelers will on their missions enjoy a very special perspective on the blue planet.

In the meantime, technology-enhanced globalization will rather not be associated with the moon or the orbit of the earth, even though geostationary satellites already do provide the world with relevant data for climate research or disaster prevention, and are indispensable for today’s information and communication systems. Earth-bound technologies will continue to dominate the globalizing tendencies among societies, economies and states. ICTs and production or transportation infrastructure(s) increasingly span the world and as such both influence our notion of space and shape our everyday societal life.

The conference approached the issue of technology-supported globalization by concentrating on five thematic foci. Since the mobility of goods and individuals figures as a key characteristics of globalization, questions of managing the transportation of these and the challenges resulting from the need to be(come more) mobile were discussed in the first topic-centered section. Themes and topics ranged from social-scientific case studies of labor migrants such as Ukrainian women working abroad and airplane pilots struggling to maintain their private and social relationships „in the loneliness of a hotel room“ in constantly changing corners of the world, to concrete engineering challenges such as the coming to terms with an ever increasing complexity of air traffic. A second focus was laid on the influence of global technologies on working environments and, more generally, the changing structure(s) and organization(s) of labor. Globally distributed product developments and technology-enhanced methods of literally performing operations in the field of telemedicine were central issues; sociologists and engineers moreover inspected the more far-reaching consequences of – and the conclusions to be drawn from – the techno-global (r)evolution. Taking ist cue from the global/local distinction which has ever since the early 1990s been predominant in the discourses about globalization, the third section focused on individual places and, more precisely, the built environments of cities and other architecturally relevant areas. Presentations on urban planning or on the expansion of cultivated nature – in short: gardens – in urban environments all over the globe were accompanied by efforts to connect local places with other master concepts of globalization such as networks or, again, mobility and connectivity. The fourth section highlighted the historical forerunners of present-day globalization while it also sought to pinpoint the difficulties, limitations and problematic aspects of the latest – some say the second, others claim it to be the third – wave of globalization. Precursors of technology-enhanced globalization date back to the 16th century as the case of the Jesuit order showed; the local drawbacks of developments subsumed under the label of the global came to the fore in a variety of other papers. Thus telecommunication systems have ever since the 19th century created a „great divide“ between those who have access to these new technologies and others who do not: a diagnosis that has lost nothing of its validity in the present as the example of „developing countries“ in Africa demonstrates. By the same token, the implementation of a new tramway system in a Brazilian metropolis at the beginning of the 20th century has reinforced the already existing social divide between the privileged ones in the city center and the underprivileged inhabitants of the outskirts. In a special sense and on a national scale, Greece belongs to the realm of the underprivileged ones too, as another case study about the deplorable underrepresentation of the Hellenic alphabet in standard software programs for personal computers showed. The fifth and last section was concerned with an issue that may not come to mind first in the context of globalization and technology: aging. Assistance and support devices such as robots or therapy methods and efforts to increase life quality for the elderly are however developed and implemented world-wide. Papers accordingly included research activities in the field of Parkinson disease, technology-assisted living, humanoid robots supporting flesh-and-blood humans in their everyday lives, or the growth and maintenance of competences that are a prerequisite for old-age people’s exploration of an increasingly globalized world.

The five sections and the keynote addresses were explicitly targeted at an interdisciplinary audience, mirroring thus the organizing Graduiertenkolleg’s own setup. At the close of the conference the chairpersons of the five sections, along with the roundabout one hundred attendants from fifteeen countries, agreed on a number of conclusions to be drawn from the paper presentations and the ensuing discussions. First, the conference has demonstrated that conceptually as well as with regard to scientific practice, the specifically technological underpinnings of globalization have not yet been explored as exhaustively as the economic, political-transnational, (world-)societal and other implications. While remarkably many, largely monodisciplinary efforts have been undertaken by politologists, economists, sociologists or historians that help to frame the changes and transformations triggered by today’s globalization, the „Technologies of Globalization“ conference was a touchstone for further in-depth analyses of the interconnectedness of the conference title’s two catchwords. Second, an outspokenly interdisciplinary framework – computer scientists collaborating with engineers and representatives from the humanities – appears useful and in fact indispensable for this kind of research, as world heritage expert Joyti Hosagrahar (Columbia University New York) observed in her final statement. Third, as Albrecht Schmidt (University of Duisburg-Essen) and Teresa Pinheiro (TU Chemnitz) suggested under the approval of Jan Helge Bøhn, professor of engineering sciences at Virginia Tech University, it seems imperative to conceive of present-day globalization and the technological development enhancing it as a phenomenon that produces those who benefit from it as well as those who lose ground. Technology may facilitate the world-wide exchange of goods, knowledge and capital, or help to connect the still very large crowd of unconnected world citizens. Yet it at the same time puts those at a disadvantage who – like the wagon owners in early 20th century São Paolo who lost their source of income with the arrival of tramway systems in the city – become obsolete with their skills and professions, or who have limited means to participate in the manifold materializations and manifestations of globalization. Again, this requires future in-depth or micro studies: a macro perspective or literally global view on the darker sides of techno-globalization, or a view from the moon on the globe, will most probably not suffice here.

* Topology of Technology is an under-one-roof graduate school that consists of PhD candidates and professors from such diverse disciplines as computer science and philosophy, the engineering sciences, sociology and history, or sports sciences and literary studies.