Erik Van Der Vleuten
Biographic Data
| ID | 2049712 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Erik Van Der Vleuten |
| GIVEN NAMES | Erik |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Der Vleuten |
| SIGNATURE | VAN DER VLEUTEN E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Eindhoven University of Technology |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 176 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 26 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Roundtable
In the face of diverse and uneven environmental crises across the globe, ongoing efforts to "globalize" the history of technology field may be considered urgent. In doing so, however, we risk uncritically exporting the norms and practices of a predominantly Western-centric field-an arguably colonial act. This roundtable explores four areas of contention: how to conceptualize "the global"; why, how and with whom to study "history" amid threatened …
Sustainability Knowledge Politics
So far, the field of sustainability history has insufficiently addressed the tricky politics of academic sustainability knowledge making. In response, this paper studies how scientific research on palm oil sustainability, when defining sustainability problems and solutions, enacted a postcolonial politics of difference between Southeast Asia and Europe. Iterating between quantitative database queries (2,500+ sources) and close reading, we found t…
Historicising Entanglements
So far, the field of sustainability history has insufficiently addressed the tricky politics of academic sustainability knowledge making.In response, this paper studies how scientific research on palm oil sustainability, when defining sustainability problems and solutions, enacted a postcolonial politics of difference between Southeast Asia and Europe.Iterating between quantitative database queries (2,500+ sources) and close reading, we found tha…
Research frontiers for multi-system dynamics and deep transitions
Connected by oil
Sociotechnical agendas
The field of science and technology studies (STS) has introduced and developed a “sociotechnical” perspective that has been taken up by many disciplines and areas of inquiry. The aims and objectives of this study are threefold: to interrogate which sociotechnical concepts or tools from STS are useful at better understanding energy-related social science, to reflect on prominent themes and topics within those approaches, and to identify current re…
"History and Technology in an Age of "Grand Challenges
This essay introduces the forum about history and technology in an age of "grand challenges." First, it sketches present-day political and engineering debates on technology's role in solving or causing "grand societal challenges," which allegedly threaten humanity and the environment. This raises the question if, why, and how historians of technology can and should engage with these intellectually tricky and politically charged debates. The essay…
Radical change and deep transitions
Schot and Kanger (2016) argue that the shift from an unsustainable to a sustainable society requires radical historical change in the form of a Deep Transition: “a series of connected transitions in many socio-technical systems [e.g. energy, mobility, food] towards a similar direction [e.g. sustainability].” They call for more research. In response, this paper discusses a historical Deep Transition. It tracks the connected histories of Europe's m…
Borders and Frontiers in Global and Transnational History. Introduction
In the last 25 years or so, global and transnational history have grown into an incontrovertible research agenda, investigating how all sorts of circulations, entanglements, and connections shaped modern history. At the same time, this research agenda has been criticized for underestimating the study of historically important formations such as the nation-state, Europe, or world systems—which persist despite a cavalcade of connections piercing th…
Europe’s Infrastructure Transition
Europe's infrastructure both united and divided peoples and places via economic systems, crises, and wars. Some used transport, communication, and energy infrastructure to supply food, power, industrial products, credit, and unprecedented wealth; others mobilized infrastructure capacities for waging war on scales hitherto unknown. Europe's natural world was fundamentally transformed; its landscapes, waterscapes, and airscapes turned into infrastr…
Europe's Infrastructure Transition
Networked Food Economy
Sunday, July 7, 1907. In response to an escalating labor conflict, Dutch army and naval forces entered the Rotterdam harbor in the estuaries of the Rhine and Meuse Rivers. At stake was the pneumatic pumping of bulk grain from sea vessels to river barges. Compared to the traditional manual unloading of grain sacks, the new harbor infrastructure promised to save 94 percent of the labor previously needed and boost Rotterdam’s grain trade. The German…
Science for Welfare and Warfare
Reviewed by: Science for Welfare and Warfare: Technology and State Initiative in Cold War Sweden Erik van der Vleuten (bio) Science for Welfare and Warfare: Technology and State Initiative in Cold War Sweden. Edited by Per Lundin, Niklas Stenlås, and Johan Gribbe. Sagamore Beach, Mass.: Science History Publications, 2010. Pp. 324. $49.95. This edited volume addresses an important subject in postwar European history. The studies explore the role o…
Interpreting transnational infrastructure vulnerability
Recent transnational blackouts exposed two radically opposed interpretations of Europe’s electricity infrastructure, which inform recent and ongoing negotiations on transnational electricity governance. To EU policy makers such blackouts revealed the fragility of Europe’s power grids and the need of a more centralized form of governance, thus legitimizing recent EU interventions. Yet to power sector spokespersons, these events confirmed the relia…
Entries
Toward a Transnational History of Technology
This essay investigates the possibility of a transnational history of technology. It takes the current, large scale research program Tensions of Europe: Technology and the Making of Europe, 1950-2000 as its point of departure. The grand promises of the recent transnational turn in historiography, from which historians of technology may profit and to which they may contribute, include: (1) developing new research topics previously relegated to the…
Auke van der Woud, Een nieuwe wereld. Het ontstaan van het moderne Nederland
TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis
Europe's System Builders
This article explores what kind of ‘Europe’ was produced in the processes of transnational infrastructure building. It focuses on international organisations dedicated to Europe's infrastructural integration as a promising research site, where infrastructural collaborations (or the lack thereof) were articulated and negotiated. Case studies of the Bureau International des Autoroutes (1931), the Union for the Coordination of Production and Transpo…
Hans Buiter, Riool, rails en asfalt. 80 jaar straatrumoer in vier Nederlandse steden
TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis
Networking Europe
The paper explores processes of transnational network building in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first section reviews several relevant literatures. It concludes that historiographies of Europe often recognize the pivotal importance of transnational network building, but fail to analyse network developments as well as their entanglement with wider historical processes. Specialized infrastructure studies exist in economic and technolog…
Bart van der Herten, België onder stroom. Transport en communicatie tijdens de 19e eeuw
TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis
Water wizards
The article investigates how humans ‘networked’ wet nature and how this affected the shaping of Dutch society. First, it takes a grand view of Dutch history and describes how wet network building intertwined with the shaping of the Dutch landscape, its economy and its polity. Second, it investigates the specific challenges of wet network building—integrating potentially conflicting uses of water into one design—for the case of the national fresh …
Introduction
‘The Netherlands develop into a network society and a network economy. Citizens’ and companies’ activities play out in ever larger spaces.’ This observation does not stem from a sociologist analysi
Under construction
This article investigates the material integration in the Netherlands. Section 1 maps the proliferation of network technologies during the last two centuries. Sections 2 and 3 scrutinize the complex dynamics of network development for selected cases. The case of the electricity supply network reveals how institutional frameworks stabilized network development despite conflicts and contingencies, and how competing (gas supply) networks affected ne…
In Search of the Networked Nation
In the Netherlands, the simultaneous construction of society and network technologies has a long history, yet it is only in the twentieth century that the Netherlands has become a veritable Network Society. Drawing on the vocabulary of the research field of 'large technical systems' and the empirical results of the Dutch national history of technology programme, this article argues that during this century technological, social and even natural l…
Sociotechnical agendas
The field of science and technology studies (STS) has introduced and developed a “sociotechnical” perspective that has been taken up by many disciplines and areas of inquiry. The aims and objectives of this study are threefold: to interrogate which sociotechnical concepts or tools from STS are useful at better understanding energy-related social science, to reflect on prominent themes and topics within those approaches, and to identify current re…
Radical change and deep transitions
Schot and Kanger (2016) argue that the shift from an unsustainable to a sustainable society requires radical historical change in the form of a Deep Transition: “a series of connected transitions in many socio-technical systems [e.g. energy, mobility, food] towards a similar direction [e.g. sustainability].” They call for more research. In response, this paper discusses a historical Deep Transition. It tracks the connected histories of Europe's m…
Research frontiers for multi-system dynamics and deep transitions
Europe's System Builders
This article explores what kind of ‘Europe’ was produced in the processes of transnational infrastructure building. It focuses on international organisations dedicated to Europe's infrastructural integration as a promising research site, where infrastructural collaborations (or the lack thereof) were articulated and negotiated. Case studies of the Bureau International des Autoroutes (1931), the Union for the Coordination of Production and Transpo…
Toward a Transnational History of Technology
This essay investigates the possibility of a transnational history of technology. It takes the current, large scale research program Tensions of Europe: Technology and the Making of Europe, 1950-2000 as its point of departure. The grand promises of the recent transnational turn in historiography, from which historians of technology may profit and to which they may contribute, include: (1) developing new research topics previously relegated to the…
Borders and Frontiers in Global and Transnational History. Introduction
In the last 25 years or so, global and transnational history have grown into an incontrovertible research agenda, investigating how all sorts of circulations, entanglements, and connections shaped modern history. At the same time, this research agenda has been criticized for underestimating the study of historically important formations such as the nation-state, Europe, or world systems—which persist despite a cavalcade of connections piercing th…
"History and Technology in an Age of "Grand Challenges
This essay introduces the forum about history and technology in an age of "grand challenges." First, it sketches present-day political and engineering debates on technology's role in solving or causing "grand societal challenges," which allegedly threaten humanity and the environment. This raises the question if, why, and how historians of technology can and should engage with these intellectually tricky and politically charged debates. The essay…
Bart van der Herten, België onder stroom. Transport en communicatie tijdens de 19e eeuw
TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis
In Search of the Networked Nation
In the Netherlands, the simultaneous construction of society and network technologies has a long history, yet it is only in the twentieth century that the Netherlands has become a veritable Network Society. Drawing on the vocabulary of the research field of 'large technical systems' and the empirical results of the Dutch national history of technology programme, this article argues that during this century technological, social and even natural l…
Constructing Centralized Electricity Supply in Denmark and the Netherlands
In Search of the Networked Nation
In the Netherlands, the simultaneous construction of society and network technologies has a long history, yet it is only in the twentieth century that the Netherlands has become a veritable Network Society. Drawing on the vocabulary of the research field of 'large technical systems' and the empirical results of the Dutch national history of technology programme, this article argues that during this century technological, social and even natural l…
Water wizards
The article investigates how humans ‘networked’ wet nature and how this affected the shaping of Dutch society. First, it takes a grand view of Dutch history and describes how wet network building intertwined with the shaping of the Dutch landscape, its economy and its polity. Second, it investigates the specific challenges of wet network building—integrating potentially conflicting uses of water into one design—for the case of the national fresh …
Introduction
‘The Netherlands develop into a network society and a network economy. Citizens’ and companies’ activities play out in ever larger spaces.’ This observation does not stem from a sociologist analysi
Under construction
This article investigates the material integration in the Netherlands. Section 1 maps the proliferation of network technologies during the last two centuries. Sections 2 and 3 scrutinize the complex dynamics of network development for selected cases. The case of the electricity supply network reveals how institutional frameworks stabilized network development despite conflicts and contingencies, and how competing (gas supply) networks affected ne…
Networking Europe
The paper explores processes of transnational network building in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The first section reviews several relevant literatures. It concludes that historiographies of Europe often recognize the pivotal importance of transnational network building, but fail to analyse network developments as well as their entanglement with wider historical processes. Specialized infrastructure studies exist in economic and technolog…
Bart van der Herten, België onder stroom. Transport en communicatie tijdens de 19e eeuw
TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis
Hans Buiter, Riool, rails en asfalt. 80 jaar straatrumoer in vier Nederlandse steden
TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis
Auke van der Woud, Een nieuwe wereld. Het ontstaan van het moderne Nederland
TSEG (Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis) - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, is het Nederlands-Vlaamse vaktijdschrift op het gebied van de sociale en economische geschiedenis
Europe's System Builders
This article explores what kind of ‘Europe’ was produced in the processes of transnational infrastructure building. It focuses on international organisations dedicated to Europe's infrastructural integration as a promising research site, where infrastructural collaborations (or the lack thereof) were articulated and negotiated. Case studies of the Bureau International des Autoroutes (1931), the Union for the Coordination of Production and Transpo…
Toward a Transnational History of Technology
This essay investigates the possibility of a transnational history of technology. It takes the current, large scale research program Tensions of Europe: Technology and the Making of Europe, 1950-2000 as its point of departure. The grand promises of the recent transnational turn in historiography, from which historians of technology may profit and to which they may contribute, include: (1) developing new research topics previously relegated to the…
Entries
Interpreting transnational infrastructure vulnerability
Recent transnational blackouts exposed two radically opposed interpretations of Europe’s electricity infrastructure, which inform recent and ongoing negotiations on transnational electricity governance. To EU policy makers such blackouts revealed the fragility of Europe’s power grids and the need of a more centralized form of governance, thus legitimizing recent EU interventions. Yet to power sector spokespersons, these events confirmed the relia…
Science for Welfare and Warfare
Reviewed by: Science for Welfare and Warfare: Technology and State Initiative in Cold War Sweden Erik van der Vleuten (bio) Science for Welfare and Warfare: Technology and State Initiative in Cold War Sweden. Edited by Per Lundin, Niklas Stenlås, and Johan Gribbe. Sagamore Beach, Mass.: Science History Publications, 2010. Pp. 324. $49.95. This edited volume addresses an important subject in postwar European history. The studies explore the role o…
Europe’s Infrastructure Transition
Europe's infrastructure both united and divided peoples and places via economic systems, crises, and wars. Some used transport, communication, and energy infrastructure to supply food, power, industrial products, credit, and unprecedented wealth; others mobilized infrastructure capacities for waging war on scales hitherto unknown. Europe's natural world was fundamentally transformed; its landscapes, waterscapes, and airscapes turned into infrastr…
Europe's Infrastructure Transition
Networked Food Economy
Sunday, July 7, 1907. In response to an escalating labor conflict, Dutch army and naval forces entered the Rotterdam harbor in the estuaries of the Rhine and Meuse Rivers. At stake was the pneumatic pumping of bulk grain from sea vessels to river barges. Compared to the traditional manual unloading of grain sacks, the new harbor infrastructure promised to save 94 percent of the labor previously needed and boost Rotterdam’s grain trade. The German…
Borders and Frontiers in Global and Transnational History. Introduction
In the last 25 years or so, global and transnational history have grown into an incontrovertible research agenda, investigating how all sorts of circulations, entanglements, and connections shaped modern history. At the same time, this research agenda has been criticized for underestimating the study of historically important formations such as the nation-state, Europe, or world systems—which persist despite a cavalcade of connections piercing th…
Radical change and deep transitions
Schot and Kanger (2016) argue that the shift from an unsustainable to a sustainable society requires radical historical change in the form of a Deep Transition: “a series of connected transitions in many socio-technical systems [e.g. energy, mobility, food] towards a similar direction [e.g. sustainability].” They call for more research. In response, this paper discusses a historical Deep Transition. It tracks the connected histories of Europe's m…
Connected by oil
Sociotechnical agendas
The field of science and technology studies (STS) has introduced and developed a “sociotechnical” perspective that has been taken up by many disciplines and areas of inquiry. The aims and objectives of this study are threefold: to interrogate which sociotechnical concepts or tools from STS are useful at better understanding energy-related social science, to reflect on prominent themes and topics within those approaches, and to identify current re…
"History and Technology in an Age of "Grand Challenges
This essay introduces the forum about history and technology in an age of "grand challenges." First, it sketches present-day political and engineering debates on technology's role in solving or causing "grand societal challenges," which allegedly threaten humanity and the environment. This raises the question if, why, and how historians of technology can and should engage with these intellectually tricky and politically charged debates. The essay…
Research frontiers for multi-system dynamics and deep transitions
Sustainability Knowledge Politics
So far, the field of sustainability history has insufficiently addressed the tricky politics of academic sustainability knowledge making. In response, this paper studies how scientific research on palm oil sustainability, when defining sustainability problems and solutions, enacted a postcolonial politics of difference between Southeast Asia and Europe. Iterating between quantitative database queries (2,500+ sources) and close reading, we found t…
Historicising Entanglements
So far, the field of sustainability history has insufficiently addressed the tricky politics of academic sustainability knowledge making.In response, this paper studies how scientific research on palm oil sustainability, when defining sustainability problems and solutions, enacted a postcolonial politics of difference between Southeast Asia and Europe.Iterating between quantitative database queries (2,500+ sources) and close reading, we found tha…
Political science (16 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Engineering (9 works) · Economics (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Business (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Social science (5 works) · Ecology (4 works)