CfP: „Learning by Experience as a Driving Force in Technological Development: Global and Local Perspectives“

Session proposal for ICOHTEC/ICHST, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 23 to 29 July 2017

Chair: NN

Session organizer: Dr. Lars Bluma, Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum

Deadline: February 22, 2016

One of the most important ways of using the past is in collecting experience that informs future action. We propose that learning by doing is crucial to technical development in industry. For example experienced workers can be the key to innovating in industry. What is important is that the knowledge that they derive from learning from experience be transferred to those members of a company or institution that are responsible for innovation. This session seeks to identify such knowledge and how it moves among actors. Adding “learning by experience” to the existing debate about the role of tacit knowledge for innovation will benefit the history of technology and help to make learning by experience a more accepted type of knowledge among historians.

The proposed research topic will tackle the question of relationship between learning by doing and technical development in major industrial centres all over the world. Our hypothesis is that these were closely linked. What will be particularly interesting (and new) from the global perspective will be an ability to test how assumptions applied previously in exclusively national narratives would work in transnational context. Our experience has shown that a transnational perspective is an important aspect of innovative history that facilitates understanding. Through the comparison of case studies - comparing not only across nations but also crucial industries, we will be able to develop a broader sense of the importance of learning from experience.

Propositions for papers including an abstract of 250 words and a one-page CV should be submitted by February 22, 2016. The abstract and CV should be sent via e-mail to .

For more information about the Congress of ICOHTEC and ICHST please consult the websites http://www.icohtec.org/annual-meeting-2017.html and