Technological Zones

Abstract

This article provides an overview of the analysis of technological zones. A technological zone can be understood as a space within which differences between technical practices, procedures and forms have been reduced, or common standards have been established. Such technological zones take broadly one of three forms: (1) metrological zones associated with the development of common forms of measurement; (2) infrastructural zones associated with the creation of common connection standards; and (3) zones of qualification which come into being when objects and practices are assessed according to common standards and criteria. The article argues that technological zones can have more or less clear borders, but such borders increasingly do not correspond to the borders of nation-states. Through a discussion of the global oil industry, some of the ways in which the formation of technological zones has become critical to contemporary economic and political life are examined.

Influencing household energy practices: a critical review of UK smart metering standards and commercial feedback devices

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Sex on the move: Gender, subjectivity and differential inclusion

“…Borders are thought of less as being continuous linear structures enclosing a political territory and demarcating a state's external edges, and more as being zones, bands, nodes, and filters. Indeed scholars now talk of a 'virtual border' (Freudenstein, 2001), and 'indeterminate' (Bigo, 2003) and 'technological' zones (Barry, 2006). These changes are referred to in terms of the 'proliferation' of borders and 'delocalization of control' (Rigo, 2005) in order to indicate that the control, once located at the borders, is now exercised by a variety of means and in a variety of locations.…”

Performing Environmental Change: The Politics of Social Science Methods

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